Preston Torbert : Courses and Seminars
Drafting Contracts: The Problem of Ambiguity
LAWS 79910
This seminar examines what is arguably the most common cause of litigation over contracts-ambiguity. By reviewing and discussing many specific examples of ambiguity, students will learn to identify the various forms of ambiguity that occur in contracts and how to eliminate them. Using the readings and handout materials, students will prepare a checklist of ambiguity issues that will help them identify and eliminate ambiguity in all types of contracts that they will draft or review throughout their legal careers.
The seminar will analyze such issues as how an easily avoidable case of contract ambiguity led to the largest civil damages award in American history; how a case of postmodification ambiguity caused a million dollar ambiguity in a contract; how Roger Casement was "hanged by the comma" in the English Treason Act of 1351; and how a case of postmodification ambiguity altered the course of World War II.
Grades will be based on a proctored final exam.
Winter 2012
Preston Torbert
