Contract as pattern language

Scholars and practitioners routinely talk about the "architecture" of individual contracts. Many observers have also noted the broad-brush similarity between the drafting of legal contracts and computer programming or coding. In 1977, Christopher Alexander, a professor of architecture at t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inWashington law review Vol. 88; no. 4; p. 1323
Main Author Gerding, Erik F
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Seattle Washington Law Review Association 01.12.2013
Subjects
Agreements
Alexander, Christopher (American civil engineer)
Architects
Architecture
Attorneys
Automation
Commercial credit
Computer programming
Contract law
Contracts
Design
Designers
Economic crisis
Environmental impact
Financial instruments
International finance
Interpretation and construction
Language
Law
Legal studies
Modularity
Mortgage backed securities
Neighborhoods
Provisions
Securities markets
United States > US
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Summary:Scholars and practitioners routinely talk about the "architecture" of individual contracts. Many observers have also noted the broad-brush similarity between the drafting of legal contracts and computer programming or coding. In 1977, Christopher Alexander, a professor of architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, drew upon his background in computer science to co-author A Pattern Language. This article examines how Alexander's pattern language framework explains how attorneys draft contracts, including in response to the types of legal design problems illustrated in Larry Cunningham's book, Contracts in the Real World. Moreover, the pattern language rubric explains how individual legal agreements interlock to create complex transactions, and how transactions interconnect to create markets. Furthermore, this pattern language framework helps account for recent evidence, including from the global financial crisis, of failures in modern contract design, even in cases where sophisticated financial firms and their lawyers were the architects.
ISSN:0043-0617
1942-9983