Kimberly D Krawiec and Nathan B Oman, ‘The Case for Specific Performance of Personal Service Contracts’, 110 Iowa Law Review (forthcoming, 2025), available at SSRN (17 May 2024). Professors Krawiec and Oman’s insightful new article caught my eye, having myself challenged various contract remedial rules in my research and writing over the years. The title of the Professors’ article made me wonder, however, whether the authors can convince readers that the seemingly inviolate rule against specific performance of personal service contracts should be overturned. But it turns out that the call for specific performance in the article actually applies to a quite limited set of personal service contracts, with the rule against specific performance still governing most such contracts. Despite the title, the authors have a good explanation for why their more narrow thesis is important: Personal service contracts that should be subject to specific performance are ‘legally and economically significant’ (p 58). Early on, the authors clarify that their goal is to show that specific performance should not be ruled out and the general rules governing equitable remedies should apply if the breaching employee is wealthy, sophisticated, and money damages are incalculable or insufficient to make the employer whole … (more)
[Robert Hillman, JOTWELL, 12 August 2024]
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