Another 2011 Conference: Save the Date!
In 1981, ProfessorCharles Fried published a book on contract theory entitled Contract asPromise. For almost thirty years, the book has been the seminalwork on the moral or deontological justification for the state’s enforcement ofprivate promises. No scholarly discussion of the field can be completewithout addressing its claims, whether one agrees or not with its original andprovocative stand.
On Friday, March 25, 2011,Suffolk University Law School in Boston will mark the thirtieth anniversary ofthe book’s publication with a day-long symposium, “Contract as Promise at30: The Future of Contract Theory.” Afterreflections from Professor Fried, some of the academy’s foremost contracttheorists will offer papers and commentary, with ample opportunity forquestions and discussion. Participants presently scheduled includethe Honorable Richard Posner, Randy Barnett, Barbara Fried, T.M. Scanlon, JeanBraucher, Richard Craswell, Avery Katz, Henry Smith, Lisa Bernstein, SeanaShiffrin, Daniel Markovits, Juliet Kostritsky, John C.P. Goldberg, RachelArnow-Richman, Curtis Bridgeman, Nathan Oman, Roy Kreitner, Gregory Klass,Carol Chomsky, and Robert Scott.
This is an opportunemoment to step back, review the alternative approaches to contract theory thathave developed since 1981, and to offer views about future doctrinal orinter-disciplinary developments, whether based in moral philosophy, welfareeconomics, sociology, or other disciplines. The papers and proceedingswill be published in a forthcoming issue of the Suffolk Law Review.
[Meredith R. Miller]