Contract Law and Its Application

The 2023 Tenth Edition of Contract Law and Its Application introduces first year law students to common law reasoning, legal interpretation, lawyering, and legal institutions, through basic American contract law. The Contracts canon is presented in relatively brief free-standing units that may be sequenced as the instructor prefers. The Casebook focuses on contract interpretation as a primary means to resolve a wide range of doctrinal and practical contract problems. The Tenth Edition's core remains the full traditional canon of American contract law: the classic common law cases, UCC Article 2 (Sales) and the Restatement, Second, Contracts, in each case with updated and current questions and notes emphasizing the application of that doctrine in the 21st century. New additions to the materials integrate the new Restatement of Consumer Contracts (Tent. Dft. #2) and Restatement, Third, Restitution. The Tenth Edition also provides updated treatment of arbitration reflecting new developments over the availability of collective relief under arbitration agreements (Viking River Cruises). In addition, the Tenth Edition includes new cases and notes on controversial topics such as: enforceability of non-disparagement and non-disclosure covenants in employment contracts and settlement agreements (Denson v. Donald J. Trump for President); "pay-now, terms-later" contracts of adhesion; gestational surrogacy agreements; force majeure and other pandemic-related excuse doctrines; the recoverability of non-economic damages in contract; disgorgement remedies; extensions and limitations of liability to third-party beneficiaries; litigation finance agreements. The Tenth Edition's Appendices provide easy reference to all relevant sections of the Restatement, Second, Contracts, and UCC, obviating students' need to purchase a statutory supplement. As with prior editions, the Tenth Edition includes comparative law materials, indicating alternative approaches to common problems in other common law systems as well as legal systems with disparate legal traditions in Europe, Latin America and Asia.