When a promise becomes enforceable, what it is taken to mean, and what follows when it is broken.
10 topics · 9 curated works
No prior grounding assumed.
Carlill v. Carbolic Smoke Ball Co.
England and Wales Court of Appeal · 1893
Holds that an advertisement offering a reward can constitute a binding unilateral offer accepted by performance, once it is shown to be a genuine…
+1 more at this level
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
Hadley v. Baxendale
Court of Exchequer · 1854
Holds that damages for breach of contract are limited to losses arising naturally from the breach or that both parties could reasonably have foreseen…
+2 more at this level
Primary sources and full treatments.
What Price Contract? An Essay in Perspective
Karl N. Llewellyn · 1931
Argues American contract doctrine can only be understood against the background commercial norms and 'law merchant' practice that courts silently…
+3 more at this level
9 works
England and Wales Court of Appeal
Holds that an advertisement offering a reward can constitute a binding unilateral offer accepted by performance, once it is shown to be a genuine promise rather than mere advertising puff.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Stewart Macaulay
An empirical study of Wisconsin businesses finding that firms usually manage disputes through ongoing relationships and norms rather than by invoking their written contract terms or suing on them.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Court of Exchequer
Holds that damages for breach of contract are limited to losses arising naturally from the breach or that both parties could reasonably have foreseen at the time of contracting, founding the modern remoteness rule.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Court of Queen's Bench
Holds that a party is discharged from a contract requiring the continued existence of specific subject matter when that subject matter is destroyed without either party's fault, founding the common law doctrine of frustration.
link checked 17 Sept 2026YaleCourses
Teaches contract doctrine case by case, showing that the enforceable promise is constructed by courts from bargain and reliance rather than found in the parties' intentions.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Karl N. Llewellyn
Argues American contract doctrine can only be understood against the background commercial norms and 'law merchant' practice that courts silently import when interpreting what parties actually meant.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Fuller & Perdue
Shows American contract damages actually protect three distinct interests — expectation, reliance and restitution — and argues the assumption that expectation is the sole natural measure is unjustified.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Lon L. Fuller
Argues the American doctrine of consideration survives because it performs evidentiary, cautionary and channeling functions that any legal system enforcing promises would need some device to perform.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Arthur Allen Leff
Argues the Uniform Commercial Code's unconscionability doctrine combines two analytically separate ideas, unfair bargaining process and unfair substantive terms, and that courts conflate them at the cost of clear reasoning.
link checked 17 Sept 2026