Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-xq9c7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-20T05:34:25.324Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Contract as Social Artifact

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Mark C. Suchman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article outlines a distinctive, albeit not entirely unprecedented, research agenda for the sociolegal study of contracts. In the past, law and society scholars have tended to examine contracts either through the intellectual history of contract doctrine “on the books” or through the empirical study of how real-world exchange relations are governed “in action.” Although both of these traditions have contributed greatly to our understanding of contract law, neither has devoted much attention to the most distinctive concrete product of contractual transactions—contract documents themselves. Without denying the value of studying either contract doctrine or relational governance, this article argues that contract documents are independently interesting social artifacts and that they should be studied as such. As social artifacts, contracts possess both technical and symbolic properties, and the sociolegal study of contract-as-artifact can profitably apply prevailing social scientific theories of technology and symbolism to understand both: (1) the microdynamics of why and how transacting parties craft individual contract devices, and (2) the macrodynamics of why and how larger social systems generate and sustain distinctive contract regimes. Seen in this light, the microdynamics of contract implicate “technical” theories of transaction cost engineering and private lawmaking, and “symbolic” theories of ceremony and gesture. In a parallel fashion, the macrodynamics of contract implicate “technical” theories of innovation diffusion, path dependence, and technology cycles, and “symbolic” theories of ideology, legitimacy, and communication. Together, these micro and macro explorations suggest that contract artifacts may best be understood as scripts and signals—collections of symbols designed to yield technically efficacious practical action when interpreted by culture-bearing social actors within the context of preexisting vocabularies and conventions.

Type
Papers of General Interest
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , March 2003 , pp. 91 - 142
Copyright
© 2003 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Abrahamson, Eric, & Rosenkopf, Lori (1993) “Institutional and Competitive Bandwagons: Using Mathematical Models as a Tool to Explain Innovation Diffusion,” 18 (3) Academy of Management Rev. 487–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abrahamson, Eric, & Rosenkopf, Lori (1997) “Social Network Effects on the Extent of Innovation Diffusion: A Computer Simulation,” 8 Organization Science 289–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Akrich, M. (1992) “The De-Scription of Technical Objects,” in Bijker, W. & Law, J., eds. Shaping Technology/Building Society, pp. 205–24. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Philip, & Tushman, Michael L. (1990) “Technological Discontinuities and Dominant Designs: A Cyclical Model of Technological Change,” 35 Administrative Science Q. 604–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arthur, W. Brian (1989) “Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-in by Historical Events,” 99 (1) Economic J. 116–31.Google Scholar
Arthur, W. Brian (1990) “Positive Feedbacks in the Economy,” 262 Scientific American 92–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atiyah, Patrick S. (1979) The Rise and Fall of Freedom of Contract. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Ayres, Ian, & Gertner, Robert (1989) “Filling Gaps in Incomplete Contracts: An Economic Theory of Default Rules,” 99 Yale Law J. 87–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baer, Vicki E., March, James G., & Saetren, Harald (1988 [1986]) “Implementation and Ambiguity,” in March, J., ed. Decisions and Organizations, pp. 150–64. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bakke, John W. (1996) “Technologies and Interpretations: The Case of the Telephone,” 10 Knowledge and Society 87–107.Google Scholar
Baxandall, Michael (1980) The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Bebchuk, Lucien Ayre (1989) “Limiting Contractual Freedom in Corporate Law: The Desirable Constraints on Charter Amendments,” 102 Harvard Law Rev. 1820–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bebchuk, Lucian Ayre, & Roe, Mark J. (1999) “A Theory of Path Dependence in Corporate Ownership and Governance,” 52 Stanford Law Rev. 127–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Howard S. (1982) Art Worlds. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Ben-Shahar, Omri, & Bernstein, Lisa (2000) “The Secrecy Interest in Contract Law,” 109 Yale Law J. 1885–1925.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernstein, Lisa (1992) “Opting Out of the Legal System: Extralegal Contractual Relations in the Diamond Industry,” 21 J. of Legal Studies 115–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernstein, Lisa (1996) “Merchant Law in a Merchant Court: Rethinking the Code's Search for Immanent Business Norms,” 144 Univ. of Penn. Law Rev. 1765–1821.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloch, Marc L. B. (1961) Feudal Society (L. A. Manyon, trans.). Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice (Richard Nice, trans.). New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burt, Ronald S. (1992) Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bygrave, William D., & Timmons, Jeffry A. (1992) Venture Capital at the Crossroads. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Calhoun, Craig (1989) “Introduction: Social Issues in the Study of Culture,” 11 Comparative Social Research 1–29.Google Scholar
Casper, Steven (2001) “The Legal Framework for Corporate Governance: The Influence of Contract Law on Company Strategies in Germany and the United States,” in Hall, P. A. & Soskice, D., eds. Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage, pp. 387–416. Oxford, UK: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clement, Andrew (1993) “Looking for the Designers: Transforming the ‘Invisible’ Infrastructure of Computerized Office Work,” 7 AI & Society: Special Issue on Gender, Culture and Technology 323–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coffee, John C. Jr. (1988) “Shareholders Versus Managers: The Strain in the Corporate Web,” in Coffee, J. C. Jr., Lowenstein, L., & Rose-Ackerman, S., eds., Knights, Raiders, and Targets: The Impact of the Hostile Takeover, pp. 77–134. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Coleman, James S. (1990) Foundations of Social Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Coleman, James S., Katz, Elihu, & Menzel, Herbert (1966) Medical Innovation: A Diffusion Study. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Dalton, Clare (1985) “An Essay in the Deconstruction of Contract Doctrine,” 94 Yale Law J 997–1114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Damanpour, Fariborz (1991) “Organizational Innovation: A Meta-Analysis of Effects of Determinants and Moderators,” 34 Academy of Management J. 555–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
David, Paul A. (1985) “Clio and the Economics of QWERTY,” 75 American Economic Rev. 332–37.Google Scholar
Davis, Gerald F. (1991) “Agents Without Principles? The Spread of the Poison Pill Through the Intercorporate Network,” 36 Administrative Science Q. 583–613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Gerald F., & Greve, Henrich R. (1997) “Corporate Elite Networks and Governance Changes in the 1980s,” 103 (1) American J. of Sociology 1–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul J. (1991) “Constructing an Organizational Field as a Professional Project: U.S. Art Museums, 1920–1940,” in Powell, W. W. & DiMaggio, P. J., eds., The New Institutionalism in Organization Analysis, pp. 267–92. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul J., & Powell, Walter W. (1983) “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields,” 48 American Sociological Rev. 147–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul J., & Powell, Walter W. (1991) “Introduction,” in Powell, W. W., & DiMaggio, P. J., eds., The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, pp. 1–38. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dobbin, Frank R., Sutton, John R., Meyer, John W., & Scott, W. Richard (1993) “Equal Opportunity Law and the Construction of Internal Labor Markets,” 99 American J. of Sociology 396–427.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dornbusch, Sanford M., Scott, W. Richard, with the assistance of Busching, Bruce C. & Laing, James D. (1975), Evaluation and the Exercise of Authority. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.Google Scholar
Drazin, Robert, & Schoonhoven, Claudia Bird (1996) “Community, Population, and Organization Effects on Innovation: A Multilevel Perspective,” 39 Academy of Management J. 1065–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dreyfuss, Rochelle C., & Kwall, Roberta R. (1996) Intellectual Property: Trademark, Copyright and Patent Law. Westbury, NY: Foundation Press.Google Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B. (1990) “Legal Environments and Organizational Governance: The Expansion of Due Process in the American Workplace,” 95 American J. of Sociology 1401–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edelman, Lauren B. (1992) “Legal Ambiguity and Symbolic Structures: Organizational Mediation of Law,” 97 American J. of Sociology 1531–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eggleston, Karen, Posner, Eric A., & Zeckhauser, Richard (2000) “The Design and Interpretation of Contracts: Why Complexity Matters,” 95 Northwestern Univ. Law Rev. 91–132.Google Scholar
Ellickson, Robert C. (1991) Order Without Law: How Neighbors Settle Disputes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Esser, John P. (1996) “Institutionalizing Industry: The Changing Forms of Contract,” 21 (3) Law and Social Inquiry 593–629.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ewick, Patricia, & Silbey, Susan S. (1998) The Common Place of Law. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farnsworth, E. Allan (1982) Contracts. Boston, MA: Little Brown & Co.Google Scholar
Farrell, Joseph, & Saloner, Garth (1985) “Standardization, Compatibility, and Innovation,” 16 Rand J. 70–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farrell, Joseph, & Saloner, Garth (1986) “Installed Base and Compatibility: Innovation, Product Preannouncements, and Predation,” 76 American Economic Rev. 940–55.Google Scholar
Feinman, Jay M. (1983) “Critical Approaches to Contract Law,” 30 UCLA Law Rev. 829–60.Google Scholar
Feinman, Jay M. (1990) “The Significance of Contract Theory,” 1990 Univ. of Cincinnati Law Rev. 1283–1318.Google Scholar
Fligstein, Neil (1990) The Transformation of Corporate Control. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Flood, John (1991) “Doing Business: The Management of Uncertainty in Lawyers' Work,” 25 (1) Law & Society Rev. 41–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Florida, Richard L., & Kenney, Martin (1988) “Venture Capital, High Technology and Regional Development,” 22 (1) Regional Studies 33–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedland, Roger, & Alford, Robert R. (1991) “Bringing Society Back In: Symbols, Practices, and Institutional Contradictions,” in Powell, & DiMaggio, , eds., The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, pp. 204–31. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gabel, Peter, & Feinman, Jay (1998) “Contract Law as Ideology,” in Kairys, D., ed., The Politics of Law: A Progressive Critique, 3rd ed., pp. 497–510. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Gagliardi, Pasquale (1990) “Artifacts as Pathways and Remains of Organizational Life,” in Gagliardi, P., ed., Symbols and Artifacts: Views of the Corporate Landscape, pp. 3–38. New York: Walter de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galanter, Marc (1974) “Why the ‘Haves’ Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change,” 9 Law & Society Rev. 95–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galanter, Marc, & Palay, Thomas (1991) Tournament of Lawyers: The Transformation of the Big Law Firm. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Galaskiewicz, Joseph (1991) “Making Corporate Actors Accountable: Institution-Building in Minneapolis-St. Paul,” in Powell, W. W., & DiMaggio, P. J., eds., The New Institutionalism in Organization Analysis, pp. 293–310. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gartman, David (1986) “Reification of Consumer Products: A General History Illustrated by the Case of the American Automobile,” 4 Sociological Theory 167–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geertz, Clifford (1973) The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Gilson, Ronald J. (1984) “Value Creation by Business Lawyers: Legal Skills and Asset Pricing,” 94 Yale Law J. 239–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gompers, Paul, & Lerner, Josh (1999) The Venture Capital Cycle. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Goody, Jack, & Watt, Ian (1986) The Logic of Writing and the Organization of Society. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, Robert W. (1985) “Macaulay, Macneil, and the Discovery of Solidarity and Power in Contract Law,” 1985 Wisconsin Law Rev. 565–78.Google Scholar
Gorenstein, Shirley (1996) “Introduction: Material Culture,” 10 Knowledge and Society 1–18.Google Scholar
Granovetter, Mark (1985) “Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness,” 91 (3) American J. of Sociology 481–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greely, Henry T. (1989) “Contracts as Commodities: the Influence of Secondary Purchasers on the Form of Contracts,” 42 Vanderbilt Law Rev. 133–70.Google Scholar
Gumperz, John J. (1982) Language and Social Identity. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Hagerstrand, Torsten (1967) Innovation Diffusion as a Spatial Process (Allan Pred trans.) Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Halliday, Terence C. (1998) “Lawyers as Institution Builders: Constructing Markets, States, Civil Society, and Community,” in Sarat, A., Constable, M., Engel, D., Hans, V., & Lawrence, S., eds., Crossing Boundaries: Traditions and Transformations in Law and Society Research, pp. 242–95. Evanston, IL: Northwestern Univ. Press and the American Bar Foundation.Google Scholar
Hans, Valerie P., & Mott, Nicole (2000) “How Jurors Construct Schemas of Legal Contracts,” paper presented at the 2000 annual meeting of the Law and Society Association.Google Scholar
Hill, Claire A. (2001a) “A Comment on Language and Norms in Complex Business Contracting,” 77 Chicago-Kent Law Rev. 29–57.Google Scholar
Hill, Claire A. (2001b) “Why Contracts are Written in ‘Legalese,’ 77 Chicago-Kent Law Rev. 59–85.Google Scholar
Hirsch, Paul M. (1972) “Processing Fads and Fashions: An Organization Set Analysis of Cultural Industry Systems,” 77 (4) American J. of Sociology 639–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobbes, Thomas (1996 [1651]) Leviathan. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Hounshell, David A. (1984) From the American System to Mass Production, 1800–1932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahan, Marcel, & Klausner, Michael (1996) “Path Dependence in Corporate Contracting: Increasing Returns, Herd Behavior and Cognitive Biases,” 74 Washington Univ. Law Q. 347–66.Google Scholar
Kahan, Marcel, & Klausner, Michael (1997) “Standardization and Innovation in Corporate Contracting (or ‘The Economics of Boilerplate’),” 83 Virginia Law Rev. 713–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, Avery Wiener (1999) “An Economic Analysis of the Guaranty Contract,” 66 Univ. of Chicago Law Rev. 47–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, Michael L., & Shapiro, Carl (1985) “Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility,” 75 American Economic Rev. 424–40.Google Scholar
Klausner, Michael (1995) “Corporations, Corporate Law, and Networks of Contracts,” 81 Virginia Law Rev. 757–852.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kubler, George (1962) The Shape of Time; Remarks on the History of Things. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Lambert, Frederick W. (1998) “Path Dependent Inefficiency in the Corporate Contract: The Uncertain Case with Less Certain Implications,” 23 Delaware J. of Corporate Law 1077–1155.Google Scholar
Lambert, Richard A., & Larcker, David F. (1985) “Golden Parachutes, Executive Decision-Making, and Shareholder Wealth,” 7 J. of Accounting and Economics 179–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, Magali S. (1994) “Architectural Competitions as Discursive Events,” 23 Theory and Society 469–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leff, Arthur A. (1970) “Contract as Thing,” 19 (2) American Univ. Law Rev. 31–157.Google Scholar
Levitt, Barbara, & March, James G. (1988) “Organizational Learning,” 14 Annual Rev. of Sociology 319–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liebowitz, Stanley J., & Margolis, Stephen E. (1990) “The Fable of the Keys,” 22 J. of Law and Economics 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindenberg, Siegwart (1988) “Contractual Relations and Weak Solidarity: The Behavioral Basis of Restraints on Gain-Maximization,” 144 (1) J. of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 39–58.Google Scholar
Llewelyn, Karl (1939) “Book Review,” 52 Harvard Law Rev. 700–02.Google Scholar
Macaulay, Stewart (1963) “Non-Contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study,” 28 American Sociological Rev. 55–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macaulay, Stewart (1977) “Elegant Models, Empirical Pictures and the Complexities of Contract,” 11 Law & Society Rev. 507–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macaulay, Stewart (1985) “Law, Private Governance and Continuing Relationships: An Empirical View of Contract,” 1985 Wisconsin Law Rev. 465–82.Google Scholar
Macneil, Ian R. (1974) “The Many Futures of Contracts,” 47 Southern California Law Rev. 691–816.Google Scholar
Macneil, Ian R. (1980) The New Social Contract: an Inquiry into Modern Contractual Relations. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Maine, Henry S. (1970 [1861]) Ancient Law: Its Connection with the Early History of Society and Its Relation to Modern Ideas. Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith.Google Scholar
McLuhan, Marshall (1997 [1964]) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLuhan, Marshall, & McLuhan, Eric (1988) Laws of Media: The New Science. Buffalo, NY: Univ. of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Mead, George Herbert (1962 [1934]) Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Menzel, Herbert (1960) “Innovation, Integration, and Marginality: A Survey of Physicians,” 25 American Sociological Rev. 704–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, John W., & Rowan, Brian (1977) “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony,” 83 American J. of Sociology 340–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mezias, Stephen J. (1990) “An Institutional Model of Organizational Practice: Financial Reporting at the Fortune 200,” 35 (3) Administrative Science Q. 431–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milhaupt, Curtis J. (1998) “Property Rights in Firms,” 84 Virginia Law Rev. 1145–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mills, Russell (1996) “Toward a Grammar of Artifacts,” 10 Knowledge and Society 129–55.Google Scholar
Morrill, Calvin (forthcoming) “Institutional Change Through Interstitial Emergence: The Growth of Alternative Dispute Resolution in American Law,” in Powell, W. W. & Jones, D. L., eds., How Institutions Change. Chicago, IL: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Nelson, Robert L. (1988) Partners with Power: Social Transformation of the Large Law Firm. Berkeley, CA: Univ. of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, Robert L. (1994) “The Futures of American Lawyers: A Demographic Profile of a Changing Profession in a Changing Society,” 44 Case Western Reserve Law Rev. 345–406.Google Scholar
Oberdorfer, Carol B. (1998) “Patents: ‘Boom’ in Business Method Patent Filings Has Followed ‘State Street’ Ruling, PTO Says,” 57 Trademark & Copyright Daily (BNA) 115.Google Scholar
Oregon Law Review (1995) “Symposium: Business Lawyering and Value Creation for Clients,” 74 Oregon Law Rev. 1–339.Google Scholar
Piore, Michael J., & Sabel, Charles F. (1984) The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Powell, Michael J. (1993) “Professional Innovation: Corporate Lawyers and Private Lawmaking,” 18 (3) Law and Social Inquiry 423–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raider, Holly (1999) “Repeated Exchange and Evidence of Trust in the Substance of Contracts,” paper presented at the 1999 annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.Google Scholar
Rakoff, Todd D. (1983) “Contracts of Adhesion: An Essay in Reconstruction,” 96 Harvard Law Rev. 1173–1284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reiter, Paul G. (1971) “Copyright, Under Federal Copyright Laws, of Forms, or Form Books,” 8 American Law Reports (ALR) Federal 869–91.Google Scholar
Rosenkopf, Lori, & Tushman, Michael L. (1994) “The Coevolution of Technology and Organization,” in Baum, J. & Singh, J., eds., The Evolutionary Dynamics of Organizations, pp. 379–402. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Ryan, B., & Gross, N. C. (1943) “The Diffusion of Hybrid Seed Corn in Two Iowa Communities,” 8 Rural Sociology 15–24.Google Scholar
Sabel, Charles F., & Zeitlin, Jonathan, eds. (1997) World of Possibilities: Flexibility and Mass Production in Western Industrialization. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarat, Austin D., & Felstiner, William L. F. (1995) Divorce Lawyers and Their Clients: Power and Meaning in the Legal Process. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Schatzberg, Eric (1999) Wings of Wood, Wings of Metal: Culture and Technical Choice in American Airplane Materials, 1914–1945. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Schein, Edgar H. (1984) “Coming to a New Awareness of Organizational Culture,” 25 (4) Sloan Management Rev. 3–16.Google Scholar
Soule, Sarah A. (1997) “The Student Divestment Movement in the United States and Tactical Diffusion: The Shantytown Protest,” 75 (3) Social Forces 855–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spangler, Eve, & Lehman, Peter (1982) “Lawyering as Work,” in Derber, C., ed. Professionals as Workers, pp. 63–99. Boston, MA: G.K. Hall.Google Scholar
Stolle, Dennis P., & Slain, A. J. (1997) “Standard Form Contracts and Contract Schemas: The Effects of Exculpatory Clauses on Consumers' Propensity to Sue,” 15 Behavioral Sciences and Law 83–94.3.0.CO;2-F>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Strang, David, & Soule, Sarah A. (1998) “Diffusion in Organizations and Social Movements: From Hybrid Corn to Poison Pills,” 24 Annual Rev. of Sociology 265–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suchman, Lucy A. (1999) “Working Relations of Technology Production and Use,” in The Social Shaping of Technology, 2nd ed., pp. 258–65. Buckingham, UK: Open Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Suchman, Mark C. (1989) “Invention and Ritual: Notes on the Interrelation of Magic and Intellectual Property in Preliterate Societies,” 89 Columbia Law Rev. 1264–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suchman, Mark C. (1993) On the Role of Law Firms in the Structuration of Silicon Valley, Dispute Processing Research Program Working Paper, DPRP 11-7. University of Wisconsin Institute for Legal Studies.Google Scholar
Suchman, Mark C. (1994) “On Advice of Counsel: Law Firms and Venture Capital Funds as Information Intermediaries in the Structuration of Silicon Valley,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Sociology, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Suchman, Mark C. (1995a) “The Contracting Universe: Law Firms, Venture Capital Funds and the Institutionalization of New-Company Financing in Silicon Valley,” paper presented at the 1995 annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.Google Scholar
Suchman, Mark C. (1995b) “Localism and Globalism in Institutional Analysis: The Emergence of Contractual Norms in Venture Finance,” in Scott, W. R., & Christensen, S., eds. The Institutional Construction of Organizations, pp. 39–63. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Suchman, Mark C. (1995c) “Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches,” 20 (3) Academy of Management Rev. 571–610.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suchman, Mark C., & Cahill, Mia L. (1996) “The Hired Gun as a Facilitator: Lawyers and the Suppression of Business Disputes in Silicon Valley,” 21 (3) Law & Social Inquiry 679–712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suchman, Mark C., & Edelman, Lauren B. (1996) “Legal Rational Myths: The New Institutionalism and the Law and Society Tradition,” 21 (4) Law & Social Inquiry 903–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, John R. (1999) “The Post-industrial Patent System,” 10 Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law J. 3–59.Google Scholar
Tolbert, Pamela S., & Zucker, Lynne G. (1983) “Institutional Sources of Change in the Formal Structure of Organizations: The Diffusion of Civil Service Reform, 1888–1935,” 30 Administrative Science Q. 22–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, Barry A. (1990) “Failed Artifacts,” in Gagliardi, P., ed., Symbols and Artifacts: Views of the Corporate Landscape, pp. 365–84. New York: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Tushman, Michael L., & Anderson, Philip (1986) “Technological Discontinuities and Organizational Environments,” 31 Administrative Science Q. 439–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uzzi, Brian (1996) “The Sources and Consequences of Embeddedness for the Economic Performance of Organizations: The Network Effect,” 61 (4) American Sociological Rev. 674–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1998). Plainfield, NJ: MICRA, Inc.Google Scholar
Weick, Karl E. (1979) The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2nd ed. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Weise, Richard H. (1993) Representing the Corporate Client: Designs for Quality. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Law & Business.Google Scholar
Westphal, James D., Gulati, Ranjay, & Shortell, Stephen M. (1997) “Customization or Conformity? An Institutional and Network Perspective on the Content and Consequences of TQM Adoption,” 42 Administrative Science Q. 366–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitford, William C. (1985) “Ian Macneil's Contribution to Contracts Scholarship,” 1985 Wisconsin Law Rev. 545–60.Google Scholar
Wieand, Jeffrey (1980) “Defining Art and Artifacts,” 38 Philosophical Studies 385–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, Oliver E. (1981) “The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach,” 87 (3) American J. of Sociology 548–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, Oliver E. (1985) The Economic Institutions of Capitalism. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar

Cases Cited

Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp. 714 F.2d 1240 (C.A. Pa. 1983).Google Scholar
Continental Casualty Co. v. Beardsley. 253 F.2d 702 (C.A. 2 1958).Google Scholar
Crume v. Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Co. 140 F.2d 182 (C.A. 7 1944).Google Scholar
Donald v. Uarco Business Forms. 478 F.2d 764 (C.A. 8 1973).Google Scholar
Miner v. Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Co. 229 F.2d 35 (C.A. D.C. 1956).Google Scholar
Richmond Homes Management, Inc. v. Raintree, Inc. 862 F. Supp. 1517 (W.D. Va. 1994).Google Scholar
Texaco, Inc. v. Pennzoil Co. 729 S.W.2d 768 (Tex. App.—Hous. [1st Dist.] 1987).Google Scholar

Statute Cited

Uniform Commercial Code. §2-207.Google Scholar