The Jurisprudence of Contracts

Abstract

If I had my way about it, Jurisprudence would not be a third year elective, as it is at most of our law schools, but a first semester, first year course. “Just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined,” the poet¹ tells us, and an inclination towards the philosophy of law is a set of mind readily observable in many men and women who have achieved distinction or, what is even more important, personal fulfillment in law as a vocation. This, then, is a kind of invitation to jurisprudence, addressed principally to law students, most of all to first year law students, and drawing for illustrations on materials students encounter quite early in the first law school year.