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Claiming a Promised Inheritance examines those cases where a person is promised a future inheritance and, having acted on it, later discovers that the promise is unfulfilled. The book structures its analysis and argument around the stories of disappointed promisees and their unfulfilled expectations of a future inheritance, and how they might seek redress. It maps and compares the various, and often very diverse range of legal responses that a promisee can avail herself of across different legal areas of the law (ranging from contract law to property law, employment law, unjust and unjustified enrichment law, and succession law) and in both common and civil law traditions. Braun asks how these responses protect the interests of promisees and whether they are sensitive to the context in which such promises are expressed. In doing so, the focus rests on the level of protection the various forms of redress grant, their scope, and the challenges promisees face when brining a claim, but also on the values and interests that are at stake when granting relief. This book argues that due to the social and legal context within which promises of a future inheritance are normally made, promisees are usually in a vulnerable position that can easily by exploited. It further argues that the law is usually more acutely attuned to the risks that the promisor incurs and that greater attention should be paid to the challenges promisees face. Claiming a Promised Inheritance thus complements the traditional viewpoint by bringing into focus the (too often ignored) perspective of promisees.

The validity of a contract can be undermined by factors affecting contractual consent. Issues of contractual validity frequently arise for consideration in all types of litigation, not least commercial disputes. This book provides practitioners and academics with an invaluable reference tool, which will enable them to navigate the complex issues of vitiation of contract. When contractual disputes arise, there are a variety of vitiating factors which may be relied on to undermine a contract's validity. This book provides a comprehensive examination of all the factors vitiating contractual consent from fraud, misrepresentation, non-disclosure, and mistake, to duress, undue influence, unconscionable bargains, and includes chapters on incapacity and unfairness. Each chapter gives a thorough account of the law on each of these vitiating factors, together with an overview of the remedies available. The book's introduction considers the theoretical foundations of the law in this area. The book will be an invaluable reference tool for lawyers involved in all types of contractual disputes. It will also be a useful reference for academics and postgraduate students of commercial law.

Contract as Promise is a study of the philosophical foundations of contract law in which Professor Fried effectively answers some of the most common assumptions about contract law and strongly proposes a moral basis for it while defending the classical theory of contract. This book provides two purposes regarding the complex legal institution of the contract. The first is the theoretical purpose to demonstrate how contract law can be traced to and is determined by a small number of basic moral principles. At the theory level the author shows that contract law does have an underlying, and unifying structure. The second is a pedagogic purpose to provide for students the underlying structure of contract law. At this level of doctrinal exposition the author shows that structure can be referred to moral principles. Together the two purposes support each other in an effective and comprehensive study of contract law. This second edition retains the original text, and includes a new Preface. It also includes a substantial new essay entitled Contract as Promise in the Light of Subsequent Scholarship--Especially Law and Economics which serves as a retrospective of the work accomplished in the last thirty years, while responding to present and future work in the field.

Promises and Contract Law is the first modern work to explore the significance of promise to contract law from a comparative legal perspective. Part I explores the component elements of promise, its role in Greek thought and Roman law, the importance of the moral duty to keep promises and the development of promissory ideas in medieval legal scholarship. Part II considers the modern contract law of a number of legal systems from a promissory perspective. The focus is on the law of England, Germany and three mixed legal systems (Scotland, South Africa and Louisiana), though other legal systems are also mentioned. Major topics subjected to a promissory analysis include formation of contract, third party rights, contractual remedies and the renunciation of contractual rights. Part III analyses the future role which promise might play in contract law, especially within a harmonised European contract law.

How can a promise be a lie? Answer: when the promisor never intended to perform the promise. Such incidences of promissory fraud are frequently litigated because they can result in punitive damages awards. And an insincere promisor can even be held criminally liable. Yet courts have provided little guidance about what the scope of liability should be or what proof should be required. This book—the first ever devoted to the analysis of promissory fraud—answers these questions. Filled with examples of insincere promising from the case law as well as from literature and popular culture, the book is an indispensable guide for those who practice or teach contract law.The authors explore what promises say from the perspectives of philosophy, economics, and the law. They identify four chief mistakes that courts make in promissory fraud cases. And they offer a theory for how courts and practitioners should handle promissory fraud cases.