James Gordley received a BA and MBA from the University of Chicago and a JD from Harvard Law School. He taught at the Berkeley Law School from 1978-2007 where he became Shannon Cecil Turner Professor of Jurisprudence, and since then he has been W.R. Irby Distinguished University Professor at Tulane Law School. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, and a membre titulaire of the Académie internationale du droit comparé. In 2022, he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Academy of Comparative Law.

• Part I: Prologue


• Chapter 1. The Search for System


• Part II: Enforceability


• Chapter 2. A Critique of Current Doctrine


• Chapter 3. Promises to do Favors


• Chapter 4. Promises to Make Gifts of Money or Property


• Chapter 5. Fair Exchange (with Hao Jiang)


• Chapter 6. Voluntary Exchange (with Hao Jiang)


• Chapter 7. Commitment


• Chapter 8: Enforcement by Third Parties


• Part III: The Content of a Contract


• Chapter 9. Duties


• Chapter 10. Conditions


• Chapter 11. Conflicts in the Expression of Assent


• Part IV: Remedies


• Chapter 12. Compensation for Harm Suffered and Lost Gain


• Chapter 13: Compensation for the Value of Benefits Conferred


• Chapter 14: Disgorgement of the Value of Benefits Received

Authored by a leading scholar, Foundations of American Contract Law systematically reconsiders the principal doctrines of contract law. The book's theoretical approach reconciles concerns about fairness, party autonomy, and the purposes that a contract serves for society and the parties themselves.