Private Law Theory

Abstract:
Analyzing a difficult subject that pervades contract law and which is vital to the national economy, many scholars have written about boilerplate contracts. With her 2013 book, Boilerplate: The Fine Print, Vanishing Rights And The Rule Of Law, Professor Margaret Jane Radin weighs in on the discussion, rejecting utilitarian-welfare notions that economic efficiency can justify the extensive use of mass market boilerplate.

In her main contention, Radin argues that mass market standard form contracts improperly degrade consumer rights in the area of voluntary consent (herein “normative degradation”). I respectfully suggest that the book has problems on both doctrinal and normative grounds. In my Article, I summarize the author’s argument on normative degradation, identify my concerns, and propose an alternative formulation.

Feldman, Steven W., Mutual Assent, Normative Degradation and Mass Market Standard Form Contracts — A Critique of Boilerplate: The Fine Print, Vanishing Rights and the Rule of Law, Part I (February 14, 2014).

First posted 2014-02-17 06:51:49