Columbia Law School Scholarship Archive Faculty Scholarship Faculty Publications 2003 Contract Theory and the Limits of Contract Law Alan Schwartz Robert E. Scott Columbia Law School,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship Part of the Contracts Commons Recommended Citation Alan Schwartz & Robert E. Scott, Contract Theory and the Limits of Contract Law, 113 YALE L. J. 541 (2003). Available at: https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/339 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Publications at Scholarship Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Scholarship Archive. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Article Contract Theory and the Limits of Contract Law Alan Schwartz* and Robert E. Scottt* CONTENTS I. IN TROD U CTION ................................................................................. 543 II. JUSTIFYING AN EFFICIENCY THEORY OF CONTRACT ........................ 550 A . W hat Firms M axim ize .................................................................. 550 B. Why the State Should Help Firms ................................................ 555 III. THE ENFORCEMENT FUNCTION ........................................................ 556 A. Enforcement Often Is Unnecessary.............................................. 557 B. EncouragingRelation-Specific Investment .................................. 559 C.