GRATUITOUS PROMISES-A NEW WRIT?

Authors

Warren L. Shattuck, University of Washington

Abstract

Under the early common law, the fact situations which presented actionable wrongs were limited in number and stereotyped into various writs which issued from the Lord Chancellor. Only as new writs were devised by him was it possible for new fact situations to achieve the dignity of justiciability and so raise legal rights and duties. But with the liberalization of pleading the recognition of new legal rights and duties became a judicial function. In consequence, the constant struggle of new fact patterns for a place in the law is now principally waged before the courts. In this struggle some fail, others succeed, and with those which emerge victorious there appears appurtenant adjective law, remedies and rules of damages calculated to place on the culpable party the burden of responsibility for the consequences of his violation of duty.

Recommended Citation

Warren L. Shattuck, GRATUITOUS PROMISES-A NEW WRIT?, 35 Mich. L. Rev. 908 (1937).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol35/iss6/3