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48 Campbell L. Rev. 1 (2025)

handle is hein.journals/camplr48 and id is 1 raw text is: Samuel Williston and the Restatement of Contracts: How the Formalism of Classical Legal Thought Modernized Contract Law DANIEL P. O'GORMAN* INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................2 I. A LACK OF RESPECT FOR LAW: A CRISIS OF THE COMMON LAW .......5 II. THE SOLUTION: A RESTATEMENT OF THE LAW................................ 11 A. The Proposed Approach: Analytical, Critical, and Constructive .................................................................................................12 B. Patient, Scientific, and Scholastic, not Ideological............... 14 C. Preservation of Classical Legal Thought and the Common Law System.....................................................................................16 D. The Proposed Form....................................................................18 E. The Project's Broad Support......................................................18 F. Holmes and the Restatement Project..........................................21 III. THE CHOICE OF CONTRACTS AND THE CHOICE OF WILLISTON .......25 IV. WILLISTON'S USE OF FORMALISM TO UNDERMINE A FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF CLASSICAL CONTRACT LAW............................... 30 A. The Formalism of Section 90: The Doctrine of Promissory E stop p el............................................................................ . 3 1 1. Williston's Support of Section 90 ................................. 32 2. Formalism's Influence.........................................................34 3. Preserving the W ill Theory .......................................... . 36 4. The Cautious Approach of Section 90 .......................... 37 5. Expanding Promissory Estoppel with Formalism...............38 B. The Formalism of Section 45: The Irrevocability of an Offer for a U nilateral Contract ........................................................ . 42 1. L angdell's Position ..............................................................44 2. Clarence Ashley and Estoppel.............................................47 3. Dudley McGovney and a Collateral Contract .....................48 4. W illiston Sees No W ay Out .......................................... . 50 *Professor, Barry University School of Law. I am indebted to Dean Leticia M. Diaz and Barry University School of Law for providing me with a summer research grant, without which this Article would not have been possible. 1