)
>
> > Apparently you have never tried to draft a contract or a will
>
>I'm baffled by the contrast between California and New York real estate
>contracts. The California one is "standard" -- written once, you fill
>in 13 odd blanks and you're done. No lawyers. In New York, if you
>want to buy a house, you first get a lawyer: okay, so what do we want
>to do with this contract?
>
>Bleah.
>
For many purposes--residential leases, for example--standard forms will do. For specialized purposes they won't. And it doesn't have to be too specialized. Thinka bout working out a contract to have some rebuild your kitchen. Commercial contexts are very complicated. The Uniform Commercial Code (the UCC), some version of which has been adopted in all 50 states, is a triumph of codification; Article 2 mainly concerns sales of goods, i.e., contracts. It is also very tough stuff, scarily intricate. My contracts class was about half on Art 2, I also had classes on ARt 9 (security) and on the commercial paper Art (notes and checks). Just try to wrap your head around the Battle of the Forms in ARt 2, for example. Even without a market economy, something like this would be necesasy to coordinate planning arrangements amng priduction units. ANd darfting and interpreting the documents, as wella s the statutes to regulate them would require . . . lawyers. Sorry, guys, yiou won't be rid of us even when the red flag flies over the Capitil. jks
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