Guest post up today from Sid DeLong, who explains legal fictions with the help of Dickens and Mark Twain www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/06/sid-...

#Caturday. He knows what inanition is. Why don’t you, Sam Ezersky? #SpellingBee

Taking a break from my break to bring word of a new Substack on arbitration from Tamar Meshel and a diverting, fun, and edifying post from @hoffprof.bsky.social on his Contracts’ Empire. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/06/subs...

Why doomscroll when you can read empirical research proving that your existence is at best useless and quite likely harmful? www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/06/new-...

I’m still in the every Charles Barkley is beautiful camp!

Platner disaster! What’s the solution? Why haven’t Bernie and Elizabeth Warren withdrawn their support? Can we still have Janet Mills as the candidate? Is there another alternative? #platner #Maine #Democrats

Interrupting the Blog Hiatus, I consider the $1.776 Billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” from the perspective of contracts law. The arguments against the enforceability of the Addendum seem far stronger than those against the enforcement of the Agreement. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/05/the-...

Why isn’t this a basis fort an ethics complaint? The guy cannot represent the US in an action against his former client, can he?

Hey #lawprofs, why isn’t this issue decided on a motion to dismiss?

What is the sound of one obsessive-compulsive not blogging? We’re about to find out as the Blog goes on hiatus for the next couple months (at least). www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/05/frid...

In Year 2 of the Felix Krull Presidency, did the President hire a pal to a no-bid contract to fix the Reflecting Pool (as he boasted) or did the Interior Department hire somebody he’d never heard of (as he claimed after the project was delayed)? www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/05/anot...

Here’s something you can count on: The 10th Annual Empirical Contracts Workshop, coming up next month at the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey School of Law www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/05/penn...

Three new pieces for our Tuesday tips: Monika Leszczyńska, Think Twice Before You Sign, Samples, Ireland & Beelen, A Corpus of Digital Contracts, and Michael Pratt, Mapping Objective Theory of Contract Formation www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/05/tues...

California law requires arbitration of wrongful death claims if the decedent agreed to arbitrate medical malpractice claims. But the line between negligent medical care and negligent custodial care is hard to draw in 24-hour skilled nursing facilities. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/05/resi...

One Episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm" provides a great introduction to implied contracts and formation issues. It should be assigned viewing in every contracts course, except that it is, of course, totally inappropriate for the classroom. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/05/frid...

Just as the Supreme Court is finally putting some limits on who can be compelled into mandatory arbitration, the SEC is now allowing companies to force shareholders into that forum. SpaceX may lead us into a new era free from shareholder class actions. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/05/a-ne...

What do you get when you cross $5 million with a young man with access to gambling apps? Brendan Sorsby is just one victim of prediction markets, which are corrupt markets, bad for individuals, and a threat to national security that no ballroom can fix. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/05/texa...

Just one Tuesday tip this week, but it’s a good one! Brian Bix @brianbix.bsky.social and Francesco Parisi on “Punishment and Its Relative Absence in Contract Law" www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/05/tues...

With the help of a lawsuit by @publiccitizen.bsky.social, @washingtonpost.com published the secret contract to build the President’s ballroom. Having read the compilation by @tanglenews.bsky.social of the President’s pay-to-play scams, we can add this one. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/05/a-se...

Is anybody tracking the E.Jean Carroll case? Claude tells me that SCOTUS keeps scheduling it for conference and not deciding it. Any theories about what is going on? #lawprof #lawprofs

Invested in a lifetime membership, thinking it my duty as a relatively well-paid academic (when compared to my colleagues in the arts and science, not when compared to my more successful students).

Today’s post covers the fifth annual Cardozo Cup competition, in which OCU law students create original works of art in honor of Benjamin Cardozo www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/05/the-...

Sullivan & Cromwell apologized for a filling with three dozen errors. Does AI really make legal work more efficient or is it just as costly to check AI-assisted research as it is to pay associates to do the work? www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/sull...

Yesterday, Pete Hegseth told Congress that the war in Iran has cost $25 billion, but academics who track the costs of wars say that cost will be $1 trillion. That’s like saying something happened in the 13th century when it really happened in the Stone Age. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/targ...

Post up this morning summarizing a great podcast from @searchenginerss.bsky.social featuring Professor Linda Blimes on the cost or wars and the Pentagon’s inexplicable inability to pass its annual audit. DOGE, I think you missed a spot. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/targ...

SSRN is overrun with submissions, making it a challenge to pick Tuesday Tips, but I found three promising articles, including work by Susan Chesler (below) on AI drafting and one about NFL arbitration, about which we posted last week. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/tues...

It’s been over a year since Paul Weiss settled with the government. How much have the firm and other firms that settled actually changed in order to comply with their obligations under the settlement? Did they even commit to anything? www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/to-w...

2d Circuit holds that the NFL’s dispute resolution system, in which employment disputes are decided by the NFL Commissioner, are not “arbitrations” under the NFL because the Commissioner is not neutral. Cert. pending. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/seco...

Texas law allows damages on top of specific performance only if the additional damages are equitable. I was hoping that this case would clarify what equitable damages are, but they seem to be the same as damages available at law. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/texa...

The 17th Transnational Commercial Law Teachers Meeting that will be held on 8-9 October 2026 at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Read all about it! www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/conf...

Today’s Tuesday Tips features scholarship on remedies, contract interpretation, and freedom of contract. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/tues...

My not-so-hot take on the @nytimes.com SCOTUS scoop: for those who’ve followed the shadow docket, the scoop itself contains few surprises. What it says about SCOTUS’s new NDA regime is more interesting than the substance of the reporting www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/a-ne...

Were jurors trolling Elon Musk by highlighting the number 420 on a trial exhibit in his securities fraud case or were they just making a joke that they thought he might appreciate? Does anything hinge on the answer to that question? www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/frid...

The President calls it a Day of Love, and it was, according to reporting from @fahrenthold.bsky.social & Andrea Fuller in @nytimes.com , at least for Event Strategies, which was awarded a no-bid contract to plan the event. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/a-sh...

Another stimulating post from @hoffprof.bsky.social on his Contracts’ Empire Substack. He looks at Pennsylvania decisions refusing to compel arbitration where consumers did not get clear notice of waiver of the right to a civil jury. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/dave...

@popehatnamechanges.bsky.social Popehat, meet Popecat www.facebook.com/reel/9733378...

Tuesday Tips: Five new pieces of scholarship on contracts and commercial law — works about AI agents, textualism, debt, reproduction and privacy law, and good faith! www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/tues...

Last week, Judge Lin granted Anthropic injunctive relief against the DoD and other agencies. A panel of the DC Circuit denied injunctive relief but granted expedited review. I think the panel misunderstands the nature of the relief sought. Whatcha think? www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/upda...

I am pleased to spread the word that the 19th International Conference on Contracts will convene in Cleveland at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, March 19-20, 2027. SAVE THE DATE!!! www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/save...

We posted about prediction markets a few weeks ago. Now, we have an update via Ashley Splawinski on @donmoyn.bsky.social's Can We Still Govern Substack. It’s not pretty. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/a-de...

The Department of Defense breached its contract with Anthropic and then tried to destroy the company. Judge Rita Lin enjoined the government actions, finding violations of the 1A, DP, and the APA. Ruhe ist die erste Bürgerpflicht www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/cont...

In a guest post today, Yehuda Adar and Efi Zemach provide a summary of their forthcoming article, Reliance as Promise. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/tues...

Today’s post is just an update on open-source contracts and commercial law casebooks. Thanks for the tip @mbruckner.bsky.social! www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/more...

We had this . . . . Can we will our way back?

Supertramp’s songwriting duo tried to terminate their agreement with their bandmates and manager for revenue sharing, arguing that,40 years into an agreement with no termination provision, a reasonable time had lapsed. The 9th Circuit disagreed. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/nint...

Six Massachusetts towns asked a court to order garbage services to resume their work. The court refused, regardless of likelihood of success on the merits, because the reason for the stoppage was a labor strike that the court could not resolve. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/cour...

Today’s post considers how BigLaw firms are like Mephistopheles. That is, why are they rushing to hire new associates while also planning to replace associates with AI?Hat tip to @derektmuller.bsky.social and his Law School Docket Substack www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/04/ai-m...

Time for the weekly Tuesday Tips about new scholarship posted on SSRN. @chrisodinet.bsky.social & @andreatosato.bsky.social have two new articles on Stablecoins, one co-authored with Yesha Yadav www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/03/tues...

Some Costco customers are suing Costco, claiming entitlement to a portion of the refunds that the company is seeking from the government on its tariff claims. Unlike the mangoes in the nectar that I buy from Costco, I think this claim is unripe. www.contractsprofblog.com/2026/03/are-...

Kevin says #NoKings in # OKC!!