American Contract Law for a Global Age by Franklin G. Snyder and Mark Edwin Burge of Texas A&M University School of Law is a casebook designed primarily for the first-year Contracts course as it is taught in American law schools, but is configured so as to be usable either as a primary text or a supplement in any upper-level U.S. or foreign class that seeks to introduce American contract law to students. As an eLangdell text, it offers maximum flexibility for students to read either in hard copy or electronic format on most electronic devices.
Why “American” Contract Law? Nearly all American contract law texts focus on U.S. law. This volume simply makes that focus explicit. Modern American lawyers face an increasingly global world, and the book makes it clear that American law is not the only important commercial law regime in the world. But much of the value that the cosmopolitan and transnational American-trained lawyer brings to the table is an understanding of the contract law of the United States. To this end, the venerable English cases that exemplify common law doctrine are here presented not in their hoary 19th century settings. but in the 21st century forms that students can intuitively grasp.
Mark Edwin Burge is Professor of Law and Director of San Antonio Programs at Texas A&M University School of Law, where he teaches Contracts, Payment Systems, and practice skills courses, including Contract Drafting. His scholarship focuses on commercial law, emerging payment systems, and legal pedagogy. Prior to entering teaching in 2005, he practiced in the area of business and commercial litigation and related transactions, including representation of financial institutions victimized by kiting and other negotiable instrument fraud schemes. Burge is a Contributing Editor to ContractsProf Blog, President of the Central States Law Schools Association (2017-2018), and a member of the Legal Writing Institute.
Franklin G. Snyder is Professor of Law at Texas A&M University School of Law, where he has taught Contracts and Business Associations since 2000. He also has taught as a visiting professor at the law schools at Notre Dame, Temple University, and the University of Idaho. Prior to entering teaching, he was a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Latham & Watkins and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Professor Snyder is the founder of the annual International Conference on Contracts, now in its thirteenth year, and Co-Founder and Editor Emeritus of the ContractsProf blog. He is one of the co-revisers of the new edition of the popular White & Summers UCC Hornbook series by West Academic, the first volume of which, Principles of Sales Law (2d ed.), was published in 2017. He is also co-editor of the book, Harry Potter and the Law.
