This chapter introduces contract law as a system for enforcing certain promises through legal and equitable remedies. Like the records preserved in the Shire Archives, it begins with the basic sources, categories, and objective methods that give private agreements legal significance.
Doctrinal map
The student leaves the chapter able to state what a contract is under R2d § 1, distinguish legal from equitable remedies, identify when the UCC governs (transactions in goods) and when the Restatement governs, and apply the objective theory to a fact pattern. Hawkins v. McGee — the doctor who promised a hundred-percent perfect hand — sets the keynote: contract law enforces promises, measures damages by the value of the promise, and treats inward states only through outward manifestations.
Key Sources
Key Rules
- Contract law is the law of promises — voluntary, private law
- Law vs. equity: legal remedies (damages) vs. equitable remedies
- R2d is persuasive authority; UCC is binding law for goods
- Objective standard: external manifestations, not secret intent
Contract law is the law of promises.