Amazon.com: Contracts (Black Letter Series) (9780314733054): John D. Calamari: Books

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 1990 | Series: Black Letter Series

Expert authors provide a detailed treatment of the basic rules, principles, and issues in contracts. Topics covered include offer and acceptance, parol evidence and interpretation, consideration, informal contracts, promissory estoppel, contracts under seal, capacity of parties, conditions, performance, and breach. Also discusses damages, regulations, third-party beneficiaries, statutes, and frauds. The discharge of contracts and illegal bargains are also discussed.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } Expert authors provide a detailed treatment of the basic rules, principles, and issues in contracts. Topics covered include offer and acceptance, parol evidence and interpretation, consideration, informal contracts, promissory estoppel, contracts under seal, capacity of parties, conditions, performance, and breach. Also discusses damages, regulations, third-party beneficiaries, statutes, and frauds. The discharge of contracts and illegal bargains are also discussed.

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Fordham University --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

3.7 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent hornbook, May 14, 2001

By

John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Cuyahoga Falls, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

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This review is from: The Law of Contracts (Hornbook Series, 4th Edition) (Hardcover)

If you're a One-L looking for a study aid for your Contracts class, you won't find a better hornbook than this one. Calamari's classic text provides clear and intelligible discussion of the basic principles of contract law.

Also consider the student edition of E. Allan Farnsworth's treatise on Contracts; the original was three volumes long, but the student edition is condensed to one. Farnsworth's discussion is more in-depth, wide-ranging, and denser than Calamari's, so I used Calamari to get principles clear and then turned to Farnsworth for elaboration.

Get both if you can; otherwise get this one first. That's my recommendation, anyway.

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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars THIS IS NOT THE HORNBOOK!! THIS IS A DIFFERENT BOOK!!! "SEARCH INSIDE" IS MISLEADING!!!, December 10, 2007

By

emilyr84 (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Contracts (Black Letter Outlines) (Paperback)

THIS IS NOT THE PAPERBACK VERSION OF THE HORNBOOK. THIS IS A CANNED-OUTLINE WRITTEN BY THE AUTHORS OF THE HORNBOOK. DOES NOT REFERENCE CASES SPECIFICALLY OR OFFER A DETAILED ANALYSIS. MORE OF A "STUDY AID" ON PAR WITH EMMANUEL'S. FOR SOME REASON AMAZON CONFLATES THIS BOOK WITH THE HORNBOOK SERIES AND OFFERS IDENTICAL RECOMMENDATIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS FOR BOTH! DO NOT BUY THE PAPERBACK IF YOU WANT THE HORNBOOK!!

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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mutual Mistake, The Mailbox Rule, and Other Legal Fictions, June 17, 2008

By

J. H. Minde "Everything I need is right here" (Boca Raton, Florida and Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Calamari and Perillo on Contracts, Fifth Edition (Hornbook Series) (Hardcover)

"Hornbooks" are summaries of a body of law used by angst-ridden law students to amplify and clarify the often arcane materials contained in Casebooks. The law of Contracts is one of the primary building blocks of a first year legal education, along with Property and Torts. Almost every 1L has a small library of these dark green encyclopedic volumes that weigh in by the kilogram.

CALAMARI AND PERILLO ON CONTRACTS is one of the few Hornbooks (along with PROSSER AND KEETON ON TORTS) that is considered an acceptable, though not authoritative, treatise for purposes of legal citation. Of course, cases themselves trump any other source material.

This is a very good, albeit very, very dense discussion of the Law of Contracts, which is one of the most intellectually challenging areas of the law. Most of the great legal theorists were Contracts specialists.

Most of our Common Law is a variation on Contract law---Torts is a violation of the Social Contract resulting in civil injury; Criminal law is a violation of the Social Contract resulting in wrongs punishable by incarceration or other sanctions; Property is all about implied (or express) contractual understandings as to the holding of title and interest; even Civil Procedure and Evidence are forms of Contract, a system of agreed-upon rules for conducting cases.

The sheer density of the material in CALAMARI AND PERILLO ON CONTRACTS makes this book less helpful than it might be to an overwhelmed law student. A typical 1L just doesn't have the time to parse and unpack this mahogany block of a text. There are other books out there that are more quickly and easily accessible, but none that acheives the depth of this particular volume. It is a "must have" for anyone serious in familiarizing themselves with the realm of Contracts.

So many years after the intellectual concentration camp that is First Year Law School, I find that perusing Hornbooks for interesting minutiae can be a rather enjoyable way spend a rainy, quiet afternoon. It's too bad that most law schools make grasping the underpinnings of the U.C.C. feel like root canal without novocaine. Law has a beauty that is often ruined by legal education.

If you plan to carry your Hornbooks around, get yourself a litigation case on wheels; it'll spare you a future of back problems.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Said the Same Thing As My Textbook
Some people are naturally good at Contracts. I am not one of them. Knowing my shortcoming, I wanted a hornbook to help explain the law to me when the textbook and lectures... Read more

Published 3 months ago by moose_angel

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Contracts Book
I thought this book was good at explaining contracts. It was a supplement book and not one required for my class, but it was recommended and our professor referred to it often. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Adam H

5.0 out of 5 stars Casenotes Keyed to Calamari
This is an absolute MUST for ANY Law student taking CONTRACTS with Calamari as the main text! I have actually cut my Study time & Writing time CONSIDERABLY with this "Miracle"... Read more

Published on July 12, 2009 by Tadpolesdad

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book.
Good Contracts Hornbook for supplemental material in a Contracts I & II course for 1Ls. I use in connection with Farnsworth on Contracts and feel like they are two great... Read more

Published on February 25, 2009 by John D. Meara

5.0 out of 5 stars The Fundamental Contract Text
This "student" text, bought for my daughter who is entering law school in the fall, is the reference any lawyer (or interested non-lawyer) should have at their fingertips.

Published on June 20, 2007 by Robin Felix

2.0 out of 5 stars Not very clear or concise
As the title indicates, this text is not very clear on concise. The authors introduce you too a great deal of information on contract law, which on the surface appears to be very... Read more

Published on June 1, 2007 by Wrench

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but not needed for contracts class
I bought this book because I needed a better understanding of contracts during my 1L year. This book expanded upon the contracts outline I already had, put out by the same... Read more

Published on December 20, 2006 by Herb Hunter

2.0 out of 5 stars Could have been better, I think
Well, the fact that I'm writing a review about this book, while it's sitting open on my desk next to my computer, open and not being read, might be some evidence of how I'm... Read more

Published on October 13, 2006 by Jessica Aviles

1.0 out of 5 stars Best used as a doorstop.
This book tells you nothing that the U.C.C., Restatement 2nd, and a basic cases and examples book (Farnsworth, for instance) doesn't already tell you. Read more

Published on January 13, 2006 by Rodeo Joe

4.0 out of 5 stars Best Hornbook I Own
And I own far too many, especially for someone who actually spends time writing Amazon reviews.

This book does a great job of explaining the policy and... Read more

Published on November 5, 2004 by Jim 'n Em

› See all 16 customer reviews...

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Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Life Ins, Second Restatement, First Nat, School Dist, Ohio App, Selected Readings, Sales Act, Restatement of Contracts, New Hampshire, Supreme Court, Fire Ins, Housing Auth, Standard Oil, Western Union, Iowa App, Los Angeles, Notre Dame Law, Utah App, Aetna Cas, American Oil, Judge Posner, Rejection of Tender, Shell Oil, American Law Institute

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