Contract Law

Third-Party Beneficiaries and the Nature of Contract

Essay Response by Nicholas Sage

In The Puzzle of the Beneficiary’s Bargain, Nicolas Cornell describes a jurisprudential puzzle concerning contract law’s treatment of third-party beneficiaries and contends that, to resolve the puzzle, we must radically revise our understanding of contractual obligation. This Response raises some difficulties for the revised understanding of contractual obligation that Cornell proposes.