Description
Book SynopsisBoilerplate - the fine-print terms and conditions that we become subject to when we click "I agree" online or enter an employment contract - pervades all aspects of our modern lives. The author argues that our courts, legislatures, and regulatory agencies have fallen short in their evaluation and oversight of the use of boilerplate clauses.
Trade ReviewWinner of the 2014 Scribes Book Award, The American Society of Legal Writers "[Radin] has given us a sophisticated and thought-provoking treatment of the boilerplate contracts that everyone signs yet few read or understand."--Robert F. Nagel, Wall Street Journal "Radin makes a compelling case that boilerplate constitutes a clear and present danger to our core values. The practical remedies she suggests ought to command the attention of anyone concerned about the imposition of non-negotiable terms on American consumers."--Glenn C. Altschuler, Huffington Post "Boilerplate is exemplary scholarship: lucid, jargon-free, and focused on solving problems as well as identifying them. It's a model of the 'process,' inside-the-system track for social change."--Michael Stern, American Lawyer "Boilerplate is a book from which all readers could benefit, whether or not they ultimately agree with every one of the author's analyses and conclusions."--Brian H. Bix, Tulsa Law Review "One of the things I like so much about Boilerplate is that it clarifies just how deep and pervasive this problem is for modern contract theory as a whole. By casting doubt on one of the most common starting points in modern contract theory, Radin in effect forces us to reflect on the basic object of the inquiry. She thereby challenges us to produce either better theories or a better world, and to do so based on the facts rather than fanciful pictures of the market."--Robin Bradley Kar Jot, Illinois Public Law and Legal Theory Research Papers Series
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Prologue: World A (Agreement) and World B (Boilerplate) xiii Part I. Boilerplate, Consumers' Rights,and the Rule of Law 1 * Chapter 1 An Overview of Worlds A and B 3 * Chapter 2 Normative Degradation: Deleting Rights without Consent in the Name of Contract 19 * Chapter 3 Democratic Degradation: Replacing the Law of the State with the "Law" of the Firm 33 Part II. Boilerplate and Contract Theory: Rationales and Rationalizations 53 * Chapter 4 A Summary of the Philosophy of Contract: The Theories of World A 55 * Chapter 5 Can Autonomy Theory (Agreement, Consent) Justify Boilerplate Deletion of Rights? 82 * Chapter 6 Can Utilitarian-Welfare (Economic) Theory Justify Boilerplate Deletion of Rights? 99 Part III. Boilerplate and Contract Remedies: Current Judicial Oversight and Possible Improvements 121 * Chapter 7 Evaluating Current Judicial Oversight 123 * Chapter 8 Can Current Oversight Be Improved? 143 * Chapter 9 Improving Evaluation of Boilerplate: A Proposed Analytical Framework 154 Part IV. Escaping Contract: Other Remedial Possibilities 187 * Chapter 10 "Private" Reform Ideas: Possible Market Solutions 189 * Chapter 11 Reconceptualizing (Some) Boilerplate under Tort Law 197 * Chapter 12 "Public" and Hybrid Regulatory Solutions 217 Afterword: What's Next for Boilerplate? 243 Notes 249 Index 313
