Deconstructing Peter Goodrich’s Contract with Law

Abstract

Peter Goodrich has taught the law of contract for more than 25 years. This is not reflected in his huge body of writing, of which his papers directly on or relating to the law of contract are only a minor part. These papers, however, shed a light on the legal theory for which he is now famous because of the way their direct engagement with a body of conventional doctrine is conducted. Goodrich’s approach is, of course, critical and deconstructive, but an intriguing theme emerges. One finds that the erudition about literary and theoretical issues that characterises his work extends to an ability to convincingly address the detail of the doctrine he criticises, so that that criticism is far from being merely negative. Goodrich is perhaps the living legal academic of whom one can least say that he avoids rhetorical and comic flourishes in the way he expresses himself. But his writings on contract are further evidence of the seriousness of his approach to the criticism of law.