| CONTRACT AS PROMISE AT 30: THE FUTURE OF CONTRACT THEORY
Co-Sponsored with the Suffolk University Law Review
This conference is supported in part by an unrestricted educational grant from
Wolters Kluwer Law & Business |
Please Note: This course has already
been held.
Date: Friday, March 25, 2011
Location: Suffolk University Law School, 120 Tremont St., Boston, MA
Time: 07:45 AM - 05:00 PM
Schedule/Agenda
Registration Information
ABOUT THE PROGRAM In 1981, Professor Charles Fried published a book on contract theory entitled Contract as Promise. For almost thirty years, the book has been the seminal work on the moral or deontological justification for the state's enforcement of private promises. No scholarly discussion of the field can be complete without addressing its claims, whether one agrees or not with its original and provocative stand. Suffolk University Law School will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the book's publication with a day-long symposium. Distinguished contract theorists will offer papers and commentary, followed by reflections from Professor Fried. Participants presently scheduled include Randy Barnett, Barbara Fried, T.M. Scanlon, Jean Braucher, Richard Craswell, Jody Kraus, Carol Chomsky, Avery Katz, Henry Smith, Lisa Bernstein, Seana Shiffrin, Daniel Markovits, Juliet Kostritsky, John C.P. Goldberg, Rachel Arnow-Richman, Curtis Bridgeman, Nathan Oman, Roy Kreitner, Gregory Klass, and Robert Scott. This is an opportune moment to step back, review the alternative approaches to contract theory that have developed since 1981, and to offer views about future doctrinal or inter-disciplinary developments, whether based in moral philosophy, welfare economics, sociology, or other disciplines. The papers and proceedings will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Suffolk Law Review. BIOGRAPHY Charles Fried is the Beneficial Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School. Educated at Princeton, Oxford and Columbia Law School, Professor Fried has been teaching at Harvard Law School since 1961. He was Solicitor General of the United States, 1985-89, and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, 1995-99. His scholarly and teaching interests have been moved by the connection between normative theory and the concrete institutions of public and private law. During his career at Harvard he has taught Criminal Law, Commercial Law, Roman Law, Torts, Contracts, Labor Law, Constitutional Law and Federal Courts, Appellate and Supreme Court Advocacy. The author of many books and articles, his Anatomy of Values (1970), Right and Wrong (1978), and Modern Liberty (2006) develop themes in moral and political philosophy with applications to law. Contract as Promise (1980), Making Tort Law (2003, with David Rosenberg) and Saying What the Law Is: The Constitution in the Supreme Court (2004) are fundamental inquiries into broad legal institutions. Order & Law: Arguing the Reagan Revolution (1991) discusses major themes developed in Fried's time as Solicitor General. In recent years Fried has taught Constitutional Law and Contracts. During his time as a teacher he has also argued a number of major cases in state and federal courts, most notably Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, in which the Supreme Court established the standards for the use of expert and scientific evidence in federal courts.
| S C H E D U L E / A G E N D A |
| 7:45 |
REGISTRATION AND CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST |
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| 8:30 |
WELCOME |
| Camille Nelson, Dean, Suffolk University Law School
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| 8:45 |
OPENING REMARKS |
| Charles Fried
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| 9:00 |
PANEL--HOW MORAL CAN A CONTRACT BE? |
Moderator: Patrick Shin (Suffolk)
Commenter: T.M. Scanlon (Harvard) Barbara Fried (Stanford)
“What’s Morality Got to Do With It?” The Limits of Non-Consequentialism in Contract Theory” Randy Barnett (Georgetown)
“Public versus Private Morality and Contract” Jean Braucher (Arizona)
“The Sacred and Profane Contract Machine: Contract as Promise with Impunity” Gregory Klass (Georgetown)
"Promise et Cetera"
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| 11:00 |
PANEL--ETHICS AND ECONOMICS OF PROMISING |
| Moderator: Elizabeth Trujillo (Suffolk) Commenter: Seana Shiffrin (UCLA) Richard Craswell (Stanford)
“Pricing in the Ethics and Economics of Contracts” Avery W. Katz (Columbia)
“Virtue Ethics and Efficient Breach” Daniel Markovits and Alan Schwartz (Yale)
“Efficient break and the ethics of promising” George Triantis (Harvard)
"Promissory Autonomy, Imperfect Courts, and Conditional Remedies"
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| 12:30 |
LUNCH (ON YOUR OWN) |
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| 1:30 |
PANEL--PROMISE THEORY, APPLIED, EXTENDED AND CRITIQUED |
Moderator: Carter G. Bishop (Suffolk)
Commenter: Carol Chomsky (Minnesota) Juliet Kostritsky (Case Western)
“Tying Contract as Promise to Interpretation of Contract” Lisa Bernstein (Chicago)
“Merchant Contract as Promise” John C.P. Goldberg (Harvard) and Curtis Bridgeman (Florida State)
“Contract, Tort and Promise” Rachel Arnow-Richman (Denver)
"A Contract Theory of Employment"
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| 3:15 |
PANEL--THE FUTURE OF CONTRACT THEORY |
Moderator: Richard Perlmutter (Suffolk)
Commenter: Robert Scott (Columbia) Henry E. Smith (Harvard)
“Law versus Equity in Contract” Roy Kreitner (Tel Aviv)
“On the New Pluralism in Contract Theory” Nathan Oman (William & Mary)
“Promise and Private Law” Jody Kraus (Virginia)
Topic to be announced
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| 4:45 |
CLOSING REMARKS |
| Charles Fried
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| Date: |
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Friday, March 25, 2011 |
| Tuition: |
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This program is free of charge but please register in advance, and early, as space is limited.
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| Walk-Ins: |
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Space is limited. Registrations at the door are welcome, but please call ahead to confirm space availability.
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| Location: |
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Suffolk University Law School, 120 Tremont St., Boston, MA
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| Credit: |
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There will be no CLE given for this conference.
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Special
Needs: |
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If you have special needs addressed by the Americans with Disabilities Act, please notify us as soon as possible.
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Directions to the Law School.
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Library 
