Blake D. Morant
85 Geo. Wash. L. Rev.1581
My service as a 2011 Visiting Fellow at University College Oxford afforded the opportunity to engage with scholars throughout the United Kingdom. Of particular note in this distinguished cadre of academics was Sir Guenter Treitel, one of the most noted scholars of contract law in Europe, who befriended me in the most collegial manner. This association prompted what has become my fascination with the interrelationship between common law contracts in the United States and the United Kingdom. Sir Guenter confirmed the distinct linkage of contract doctrine in our respective countries through his lectures— which I was privy to witness during my visiting fellowship—and his pedagogy, which he demonstrated through his years of teaching at Southern Methodist University’s law school.
The George Washington University Law School Law Review’s Fall Symposium, “Divergence and Reform in the Common Law of Contracts,” manifested Sir Guenter’s appreciation of the comparative similarities and distinctions of contract law and doctrine established in the United Kingdom and the United States. The event featured noted scholars from both countries, exploring the nuanced distinctions in such subjects as economic symmetry, remedies, interpretation and good faith, and consumer law. This Symposium followed a similar program to a series of biennial conferences that last occurred in 2013 at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. It seemed both fitting and appropriate to continue this comparative exercise here in the United States. The global nature of commercial transactions requires scholars and practitioners to appreciate the international nexus of contractual doctrine, exploring commonalities and distinctions that reveal its analytical depth.
