Subjects:

Contract Law

Contents:

Introduction: Hugh Collins (LSE)

The Real Deal and the Paper Deal: Empirical Pictures, Complexity, and the Urge for the Magic of Transparent, Simple Rules: Stewart Macaulay (Wisconsin)

Beyond Custom: Contract, Contexts, and the Recognition of Implicit Understandings: John Wightman (Kent)

After Investors: Interpretation, Expectation and the Implicit Ethic of Contract: Roger Brownsword (Sheffield)

The Want of Consideration for Fairness: David Campbell (Cardiff)

A Comparison of British and American Attitudes Towards the Exercise of Judicial Discretion in Contract Law: William Whitford (Wisconsin)

Discretionary Powers in Contracts: Hugh Collins (LSE)

Expertise as Social Institution: Internalising Third Parties into the Contract: Gunther Teubner (Frankfurt)

Implicit Contracts and the Corporation: Paddy Ireland (Kent)

How Do, and How Should, Courts Deal with Implicit Contracts? Lessons from the Corporate Context: Chris Riley (Durham)

Implicit Contracts and the Evolution of Corporate Governance: The Case of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers: Simon Deakin, Richard Hobbs,David Nash and Giles Slinger (Cambridge University)

Reflections on Relational Contract Theory after a Neo-classical Seminar: Ian Macneil (Northwestern)

This collection of essays, derived from an international workshop, explores the significance of implicit understandings and tacit expectations of the parties to different kinds of contractual agreements, ranging from simple discrete transactions to long-term associational agreements such as those formed in companies. An interdisciplinary and comparative approach is used to investigate how the law comprehends and gives effect to the these implicit dimensions of contracts.

The significance of this enquiry is found not only in relation to the interpretation of contracts in many different contexts, but more fundamentally in how social practices involved in making contracts should be analysed and comprehended.