Recommended Citation
Matthew Jennejohn, Braided Agreements and the New Frontiers of Relational Contract Theory, 45 J. Corp. L. 885 (2020).
Keywords
contract design, contract law, preliminary agreements, innovation, defense contracting, government procurement
Document Type
Article
Abstract
This Article, written for a symposium at Wharton celebrating Ron Gilson's scholarship, assesses Gilson, Sabel & Scott's "braided contracting" thesis, presented in their 2010 article, Braiding: The Interaction of Formal and Informal Contracting in Theory, Practice, and Doctrine. Focusing particularly on the application of the braiding thesis to preliminary agreements, this Article presents new evidence of a preliminary negotiation process called "alpha contracting," used from time to time by the Department of Defense in sole-source situations, that exhibits many of the key characteristics of braided contracting's logic. The piece then turns to the limits of the braiding thesis, identifying a number of new questions for relational contracting research to explore.
Publisher
University of Iowa College of Law
Publication Title
The Journal of Corporation Law