CONTRACTS READING ASSIGNMENTS (2.0)

            This syllabus includes a list of numbered reading assignments.  Each week, we will cover three or four assignments.  Occasionally we may skip assignments.  I may need to adjust the assignments from time to time because this is the first time that I have taught Contracts in a semester rather than as a year-long course.

            In the assignments that follow, I ask you to engage the materials at four different levels.  These levels are preparing, reading, skimming, and skipping.  Preparing is the most intensive and means that you should read the material very carefully, more than once, and prepare to answer questions about it during class.  Reading is less intensive and means that you should read through the material once, at a more rapid pace than when you are preparing.  When you are reading, you are looking for big ideas and concepts; when you prepare, you look for these big ideas and fit them into the nitty-gritty details.

            Skimming is less demanding than reading.  When you skim, you should be getting the general idea of the material.  You may read only the first sentence in a paragraph and just look over the remainder of the paragraph.  Students often claim that they cannot skim, that they must read everything very closely.  This is wrong and leads to much wasted time.  You must learn to adjust the intensity of your reading to the different types of material that you face.

            After skimming, skipping is the least intensive and requires no effort at all.

Unit 1.  Remedies

1.1       There are several parts to this assignment. 

             "Introduction to Law School"

             A.  Read Macaulay et al., Contracts:  Law In Action [hereafter CLA], 1-24.  We will not discuss this material in class, but these pages will help to orient you to Contracts and also to law school.  (It's not too late to try to figure out what's happening in law school.)

             "What rules apply to this transaction?"

             Prepare to discuss CLA, 25-38.  I think that we should have no trouble getting through this material on Wednesday.  You should read these pages quite closely, and you should prepare answers to the nine problems on pages 35-36.

             As you read pages 25-38, you will encounter references to a statute known as the Uniform Commercial Code.  For this assignment and for every assignment during the course of the year, whenever you see a reference to the UCC, you should open your copy of the UCC and read the cited portion of the Code.  Your copy of the UCC is in Scott and Kraus, Contract Law and Theory:  Selected Provisions:  Restatement of Contracts and Uniform Commercial Code.  

             For this first assignment, you should prepare to discuss the following sections of the Code:

1-102(1)
1-102(2)
1-103
1-201(3)
1-203
2-101
2-102
2-105
2-107(1)
2-107(2)
2-501(1)
2-704(2)

            You should read the above sections as well as the Official Comments to these sections.  In addition, you may find that the above sections or the Comments make cross-references to other portions of the Code.  You should also read these sections.

1.2         "The Expectation Interest, or How 'bout them Apples?"           

         Prepare CLA, 38-40.

            Read Chirelstein, 174-83.

            Links:  USApple -- National Trade Association for the Apple Industry.

            [Note that visiting the "Links" section is entirely optional and not necessarily worthwhile.]

1.3         "Substitute Contracts:  Mitigation and the Special Case of Lost Volume"

Prepare CLA, 40-60.

Read Chirelstein, 173-194.

Links:  Shirleymaclaine.com  Shirley Maclaine filmography.  (Internet Movie Database.)

Northwest Marine Trade Association

Broadwater Boats

1.4         "Specific Performance:  Why Not Just Make the Breachor Perform?"

            Prepare CLA, 61-68.

1.5         "Liquidated Damages:  Specifying the Remedy in Advance"

            Prepare CLA, 69-78.

            Read Chirelstein, 212-217.

Links:  Lake River Corporation

Carborundum

Biography of Vilfredo Pareto

Merchant of Venice (searchable)  & Shylock

1.6         "Foreseeability and Certainty:  Additional Limitations on Recovery" Prepare CLA, 79-91, Read 91-98. Read Chirelstein, 194-199. Links:  Pickfords:  The Careful Movers Federal Express

1.7        "The Reliance Interest:  An Alternative to Expectation"

            Prepare CLA, 100-114.

            Read Chirelstein, 199-212.       

Links:  American Gas Association

1.8      "Comparing Reliance and Expectation"

            Prepare CLA, 150-173.

Links:  Colorado Mining Association

Homage à Hedy Lamar

History of Plastic Surgery

1.9   "Restitution and Exit:  Additional Remedies"

            Prepare CLA, 113-134.

            Read Chirelstein, 199-212.

Unit 2.  Continuing Relations and Enforceability

2.1.      "Rules of Offer and Acceptance"

            Prepare CLA, 175-199.

            Read Chirelstein, Chapter on Offer and Acceptance.

Links:  CALI Contract Formation exercise.  

2.2      "Contract:  Marriage and Cohabitation"

Prepare CLA, 199-229.

Links:  Eonline story about Marvin v. Marvin

Unmarried Couples and the Law (Palimony.com, a site created by Jared Laskin, a member of the firm that defended Lee Marvin.)

2.3.      "Which Promises Should Law Enforce?"

            Prepare CLA, 229-46

            Read Chirelstein, ___.

2.4       "Get it in Writing:  The Statute of Frauds"

Prepare CLA  246-86.

Links:  CALI Statute of Frauds lesson.

2.5      "The Franchisor's Siren Call and Pre-Contractual Reliance"

            Prepare CLA, 297-.319.

Links:  American Association of Franchisees  & Dealers

City of Chilton, Wisconsin.

2.6     "Another Remedy:  Relational Sanctions"

            Prepare CLA, 365-380.