Private law theory must confront the plurality of values that inform the problems that private law addresses in practice. We consider Hanoch Dagan's and Michael Heller's The Choice Theory of Contracts as a case-study in the promise and perils that embracing plural values poses for private law...

Contract theorists approach value pluralism in three ways: (a) Capitulation: the theorist shows how a single value – e.g., efficiency or community – explains a rule or an area and implies normative recommendations; (b) Leveraging: the theorist shows how multiple values that theorists find...

The law of contracts, at least in its orthodox expression, concerns voluntary, or chosen, legal obligations. When Brody accepts Susan’s offer to sell him a canoe for a set price, the parties’ choices alter their legal rights and duties. Their success at changing the legal landscape depends...

“Freedom of contracts” has two components: (1) the familiar freedom to bargain for terms within a contract and (2) the long-neglected freedom to choose from among contract types. Theories built on the first freedom have reached an impasse; attention to the second points toward a long-elusive...