ABSTRACT
This chapter illuminates the unbearable narrowness of the doctrine of undue influence and calls for its expansion. Conventional applications of the doctrine focus on individuals who are extremely vulnerable to exploitation by those with whom they have close relationships. They fail to help in numerous other salient contexts in which power gaps between the parties beget manipulative usage of contracts. To keep contracts better aligned with the ideals of free will and autonomy, we must unshackle undue influence from its traditional restraints. Particularly, it is urgent to address the flood of novel digital manipulations that steer countless people to contacts they would not have otherwise formed. The impact of such strategies is limitless, as they misuse technological innovations to prey on psychological and behavioral shortcomings that make all humans vulnerable. Thus, undue influence could and should be utilized to suppress all forms of contractual manipulation, old and new alike.
Keren, Hila, The Unbearable Narrowness of Undue Influence (November 14, 2023) in Research Handbook on the Philosophy of Contract Law (Mindy Chen-Wishart and Prince Saprai eds).
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