Research Catalog

Title

Calculating promises : the emergence of modern American contract doctrine / Roy Kreitner.

Author

Kreitner, Roy

Publication

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, c2007.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xii, 242 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

"Calculating Promises examines the history of American contract law around the turn of the twentieth century. It meticulously details shifts in our conception of contract by juxtaposing scholarly accounts of contract with case law, and shows how the cases exhibit conflicts for which scholarship offers just one of many possible answers."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject

• Contracts > United States > History
• Promise (Law) > United States > History

Genre/Form

• History
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

pt. I. Gifts and promises revisited. The revolution in consideration doctrine ; The gift from beyond the grave: case law ; Responding to revolution: moving gifts and consideration through the twentieth century ; Speculating on gifts and promises -- pt. II. Speculations of contract. Distinguished gambles: the struggle to separate speculation and insurance from gambling ; "Contracts" for "futures": Commercial speculation and the gambling stigma ; Wagering in lives: the life insurance speculators ; Acquistive individuality vs. communal efficiency: conflicting policies and the love-hate relationship with risk -- pt. III. The narratives of incomplete contracts. Framing incomplete contracts ; The use and abuse of historical narrative: debates over incomplete contracts ; Evaluating the frame of incompleteness discourse.

ISBN

9780804753982 (cloth : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2006025886

OCLC

70864491

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library