A01=Mitu Gulati
A01=Robert E. Scott
accountability
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Author_Mitu Gulati
Author_Robert E. Scott
automatic-update
boilerplate
bond
business
capitalism
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=JHB
Category=LA
Category=LNCJ
clauses
contracts
COP=United States
corporate
creditors
defaulting
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
economics
elliott
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
government
history
innovation
international finance
investment banks
judicial interpretation
Language_English
law
legal system
monarchy
nonfiction
PA=Available
pari passu
politics
Price_€20 to €50
profitability
PS=Active
regulation
SN=Chicago Series in Law and Society
softlaunch
sovereign debt
sovereignty
standardized terms
Product details
- ISBN 9780226924380
- Weight: 482g
- Dimensions: 16 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 29 Nov 2012
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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Boilerplate language in contracts tends to stick around long after its origins and purpose have been forgotten. Usually there are no serious repercussions, but sometimes it can cause unexpected problems. Such was the case with the obscure pari passu clause in cross-border sovereign debt contracts, until a novel judicial interpretation rattled international finance by forcing a defaulting sovereign - for one of the first times in the market's centuries-long history - to repay its foreign creditors. Though neither party wanted this outcome, the vast majority of contracts subsequently issued demonstrate virtually no attempt to clarify the imprecise language of the clause. Using this case as a launching pad to explore the broader issue of the "stickiness" of contract boilerplate, Mitu Gulati and Robert E. Scott have sifted through more than one thousand sovereign debt contracts and interviewed hundreds of practitioners to show that the problem actually lies in the nature of the modern corporate law firm. The financial pressure on large firms to maintain a high volume of transactions contributes to an array of problems that deter innovation.
With the near certainty of massive sovereign debt restructuring in Europe, "The Three and a Half Minute Transaction" speaks to critical issues facing the industry and has broader implications for contract design that will ensure it remains relevant to our understanding of legal practice long after the debt crisis has subsided.
Mitu Gulati is professor of law at Duke University. Robert E. Scott is the Alfred McCormack Professor of Law and the director of the Center on Contract and Economic Organization at Columbia Law School.
