Symposium Announcement: “Contract as Promise”

My friend (and Suffolk law prof) Jeff Lipshaw sends along this conference announcement:

"Contract as
Promise" Symposium – Save the Date – March 25, 2011

In 1981, Professor Charles Fried
published a book on contract theory
entitled Contract as Promise.  For
almost thirty years, the 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.  

On Friday,
March 25, 2011, Suffolk University Law School in Boston
will mark the thirtieth anniversary of the book's publication with a
day-long
symposium, "Contract as Promise
at 30:  The Future of Contract
Theory."  After reflections
from Professor Fried, some of the academy's foremost contract theorists
will
offer papers and commentary, with ample opportunity for questions and
discussion.  Participants presently
scheduled include the Honorable Richard Posner, Randy Barnett, Barbara
Fried,
T.M. Scanlon, Jean Braucher, Richard Craswell, Avery Katz, Henry Smith,
Lisa
Bernstein, Seana Shiffrin, Daniel Markovits, Juliet Kostritsky, John
C.P.
Goldberg, Rachel Arnow-Richman, Curtis Bridgeman, Nathan Oman, Roy
Kreitner,
Gregory Klass, Carol Chomsky, and Robert Scott. 

This is an
opportune moment to step back, review the alternative
approaches to contract theory that have developed since 1981, and to
offer
views about future doctrinal or inter-disciplinary developments, whether
based
in moral philosophy, welfare economics, sociology, or other disciplines.
 The papers and proceedings will be published in a forthcoming issue of
the Suffolk Law Review.

Mark your
calendars and plan to attend this significant scholarly
event.  Details will follow, so
stay tuned.