Product Description

The Third Edition of Concepts and Case Analysis in the Law of Contracts is a brief primer that offers first-year law students a reliable overview of the major themes and leading cases in the field. This Contracts primer is vastly uncluttered - one that picks up the main themes in the first-year Contracts course, together with related cases.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21550 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 236 pages

About the Author
Columbia University

Customer Reviews

Something for the Whole Family
Most of the reviews are by law students, and I agree that this is an excellent study aid that (for any student with the potential to become a decent lawyer) is far more valuable than the usual commercial outlines. However, as someone who graduated law school in 1991, I can add that it also provides rare pleasure that is not to be missed by any member of that exceedingly small group composed of lawyers who actually are interested in the law. (For lack of a better analogy -- and I trust I won't be misunderstood -- the effect is a little like Rocky and Bullwinkle, something that manages to keep both the kids and the adults entertained, although on different levels.) It is hard to imagine a better opportunity to follow along as a truly great lawyer shows by example how one distinguishes cases, assesses what the court saw in the facts, and elaborates doctrine. This, in somewhat informal garb, is traditional legal analysis at its very best and accessible enough to make it painfully clear to everyone what we stand to lose through the invasion of our law schools by a bunch of PhDs peddling the latest academic fads. Any law student who wants to get some sense of what it means to be a real lawyer (you won't meet that many) should read this book.

I remember Chirelstein from my time at Columbia Law School as a somewhat distant figure, but when he appears in these pages it is hard to describe the sensation produced by such direct and complete access to a superior mind. Combine this with flowing, limpid prose, and the result is profound sadness that such books are so rare.

Solid for common law, lacking for UCC
If your prof is really focused on the UCC, this book is going to be a waste of your time. If you have a curmudgeoney old prof who has spent his whole life in academia and is more into contract theory/policy and common law, this book will get you an A without touching the casebook.

If you just want to do well in your contracts class without having to do a lot of reading, you would be better off using Examples & Explanations instead. If you are ambitious you could use both, but I think E&E is much better if you only have time for one supplement since it covers the code and common law.

I rated 3/5 because even though the book is a great aid for contracts, my prof was a hardcore UCC guy and it was pretty much useless for me. I would still have earned my B+ without this book, but I would have done worse without E&E.

The best book on contracts ever
This book is pure genius. The dense and mysterious subject of contracts is rendered both intelligible and sensible by the author's witty prose. Written in the friendly, almost conversational style familiar to his students, Chirelstein provides in just a few pages a thorough overview of the material.

The book is short enough to read in a weekend, and should be mandatory reading for all first year law students. I read it twice; once at the beginning of the semester and once for finals (its that short) and found in invaluable.