Deborah Zalesne, Racial Inequality in Contracting: Teaching Race as a Core Value, 3 Colum. J. Race & L. 23 (2013)Contract law provides a particularly rich and interesting backdrop for the analysis of racial assumptions, in part because of its racially-charged history and the ways in which the doctrine is inextricably linked to race.2 Further, a complete understanding of contract disputes routinely requires an *25 analysis of the effects of inequality, including race dynamics, on parties' bargaining choices.3 This Article starts from the premise that the best way to properly train students to question the fundamental assumptions of contract doctrine is to fully embed the critiques in the analytical structure and legal analysis of the doctrine we teach our students.
Blake D. Morant, The Relevance of Race and Disparity in Discussions of Contract Law, 31 New Eng. L. Rev. 889 (1997)"This Article proposes that those who teach, research, or practice contract law should broaden their perspective to ensure that the dynamics of human perception31 and disparity based upon race, gender, and class are explored in case analyses when these issues play a role in the analysis of legal rules. When relevant, issues of disparity should be considered and analyzed, not as exclusive determinants, but as possible contributing components to the thought processes that lead to the formation and breakdown of bargains. To ignore matters of race, gender, or any type of disparate treatment because of contract law's objective facade would be both myopic and misleading. Cases should be examined in view of the applicable rules of law, as well as the modalities of perception that influence bargainers in the conception, negotiation (“preformation”), formation, and subsequent performance of contracts."
Emily M.S. Houh, Sketches of a Redemptive Theory of Contract Law, 66 Hastings L.J. 951 (2015)This Article is about the game we call contract law and what it does and means to those who, at one time or another, have been categorically barred from play. How have "outsider" players-such as racial minorities, women, and sexual minorities -entered the game and, subsequently, how have its governing rules-that is, contract doctrines applied or not applied to them? On the flipside, how have common law contract doctrines responded to the entry of new players in the game?
Anthony R. Chase, Race, Culture, and Contract Law: From the Cottonfield to the Courtroom, 28 Conn. L. Rev. 1 (1995)"The ultimate goal of this Article is to outline the legal discourse of contract law and to explain the unconscious influence that race has on the manner in which we interpret contract doctrine. . . . .This Article first explores the history of U.S. contract law and theory and relates it to the experience of African-Americans during the period of slavery and immediately thereafter. In Part III, this Article analyzes the modern problem of race discourse by comparing the theories of race consciousness and race neutrality and their connection to Critical Race Theory and Critical Legal Studies. The next part addresses the role of race in legal scholarship by focusing on the impact of racism on legal theory and teaching. In particular, Part IV reviews the treatment of African-Americans by major contract casebooks and offers suggestions for implementing race and cultural consciousness into a legal education's core curriculum. Finally, this Article concludes that implementing race consciousness in the legal classroom and beyond is the only effective means of eliminating the role that past injustices have played in African-American contracts and contacts in our society."