Legal Commentary

My parting shot for my month at Prawfs is a teaser.  Mark your calendars now for a dynamite symposium on Friday, March 25, 2011 to be held at the Suffolk University Law School in downtown Boston.  We will commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Charles Fried's iconic Contract as Promise with a day-long program featuring a host of contract theory and jurisprudence luminaries (I'm assembling the lineup now - look for details over the coming weeks and months), and kicked off by reflections from Professor Fried himself. 

For almost thirty years, Professor Fried's book has been the seminal work on the moral or deontological justification for the state's enforcement of private promises.  No scholarly discussion of the field can be complete without addressing its claims, whether one agrees or not with its original and provocative stand.  The thirtieth anniversary of its publication is an opportune moment to step back, review the alternative approaches to contract theory that have developed since then, and to offer views about future doctrinal or inter-disciplinary developments, whether based in moral philosophy, welfare economics, sociology, or other disciplines. 

An unrelated final (and somewhat soapy) reflection below the break.

This marks the completion of the my fifth annual summer guest slot on PrawfsBlawg.  I regard this forum and its people with substantial affection, as I was invited to participate when I was a mere academic wannabe (albeit an old one), having managed the November before to snag ten meat market interviews and not a single callback.  My first attempts at blogging here coincided with the 2006 Law & Society meeting in Baltimore, the first academic conference I ever attended, and the bar night at the James Joyce Pub near the Inner Harbor was where I first met a whole bunch of you.  Thanks again for your friendship.  And to other aspirants, particularly of the geriatric variety, in the unforgettable words of Jason Nesmith as Captain Peter Quincy Taggert, "never give up, never surrender."