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Bartrum on Shiffrin on Contracts & Promise

By Lawrence Solum

Ian C. Bartrum (Drake Law School) has posted Thoughts on the Divergence of Contract and Promise on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This essay offers some brief thoughts on Seana Shiffrin?s recent work regarding the divergence of contractual and promissory norms. I conclude that Shiffrin does not do enough to separate and account for the different consequentalist and deontological justifications underlying each institution, and does not do enough to explain how promises give rise to the ?moral? duties she posits. I suggest, instead, that the divergence between contract and promise is justified by the different roles each institution plays in our lives, and that, in fact, keeping strictly promissory duties outside the scope of state coercion actually facilitates a strong culture of responsible moral agency.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on August 06, 2010 (boomark / email).