ABSTRACT

This chapter offers an overview of different justifications for, and different approaches to, teaching contract theory. It discussed the way that, sometimes, contract law professors teach (a kind of) theory, even when they do not intend to do so. Sometimes contract theory is taught in a class of its own, a seminar that offers an overview of the most influential contemporary theorists, or perhaps a discussion based on a current draft of one contract theorist’s work-in-progress. Sometimes contract theory is taught in a class of its own, a seminar that offers an overview of the most influential contemporary theorists, or perhaps a discussion based on a current draft of one contract theorist’s work-in-progress. A fair amount of the theory taught about contract law is taught indirectly, and often unintentionally. The conventional way to teach contract law and to write contract law textbooks is to proceed, as it were, chronologically: formation, interpretation and performance, remedies.