University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Law Student Publications School of Law 2014 Extrinsic Evidence, Parol Evidence, and the Parol Evidence Rule: A Call for Courts to Use the Reasoning of the Restatements Rather than the Rhetoric of Common Law Timothy Archer University of Richmond Shalayne Davis University of Richmond David G. Epstein University of Richmond Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/law-student-publications Part of the Common Law Commons, and the Contracts Commons Recommended Citation David G. Epstein, Timothy Archer, & Shalayne Davis, Extrinsic Evidence, Parol Evidence, and the Parol Evidence Rule: A Call for Courts to Use the Reasoning of the Restatements Rather than the Rhetoric of Common Law, 44 N. M. L. Rev. 49-87 (2014). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Law Student Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. EXTRINSIC EVIDENCE, PAROL EVIDENCE, AND THE PAROL EVIDENCE RULE: A CALL FOR COURTS TO USE THE REASONING OF THE RESTATEMENTS RATHER THAN THE RHETORIC OF COMMON LAW David G. Epstein,* Timothy Archer,** and Shalayne Davis*** I. INTRODUCTION From the first year of law school, law students, lawyers, and judges encounter the terms "parol evidence,"1 "parol evidence rule," and "ex- * George E. Allen Chair, University of Richmond. As the senior author, let me make two ministerial points. First, my name appears first because I am a law professor, and putting my name first is the kind of arbitrary, egotistical thing that law professors do.