Charles Knapp

Bio

Professor Chuck Knapp is a graduate of New York University School of Law, JD (1960), University of Sydney, Rotary Foundation Scholar (1957), and Denison University, B.A. (1956). He came to UC Law SF in 1998 from New York University Law School, where he had been a faculty member since 1964, and was the Max E. Greenberg Professor of Contract Law.

At UC Law SF, Professor Knapp was named the first holder of the Joseph W. Cotchett Distinguished Professorship. Besides his years of service at N.Y.U., he has been a visiting professor at Harvard, the University of Arizona, Brooklyn Law School, and the University of Copenhagen.

His principal teaching interest is the first-year Contracts course. Along with UC Law SF’ Professor H.G. Prince and Professor Nathan Crystal, he is the co-author of a widely used casebook, Problems in Contract Law, published by Aspen and now in its seventh edition. Professor Knapp’s other teaching is usually in the commercial law area; at UC Law SF he also teaches an advanced Contracts course and a course in Secured Transactions.

Born and raised in Zanesville, Ohio, Professor Knapp has two daughters, a son-in-law and a daughter-in-law, and five grandchildren, with all of whom he tries to spend at least some time each summer at the family home in the Catskill Mountains, in New York State.

Scholarship

Books

Problems in Contract Law: Cases and Materials (Wolters Kluwer 9th ed. 2019) (with Nathan M Crystal & Harry G Prince).

Problems in Contract Law (Wolters Kluwer 8th ed. 2016) (with Nathan M Crystal & Harry G Prince).

Problems in Contract Law (Aspen Publishers 7th ed. 2012) (with Nathan M. Crystal & Harry G. Prince). AMAZON

Rules of Contract Law, 2012-2013 Statutory Supplement (Aspen Publishers 2012) (with Nathan M. Crystal & Harry G. Prince).

Rules of Contract Law, 2011-2012 Statutory Supplement (Aspen Publishers 2011) (with Nathan M. Crystal & Harry G. Prince).

Rules of Contract Law, 2009-2010 Statutory Supplement (Aspen Publishers 2009) (with Nathan M. Crystal & Harry G. Prince).

Problems in Contract Law (Aspen Publishers 6th ed. 2007 & Stat. Supps. 2007–2008) (with Nathan M. Crystal & Harry G. Prince).

Rules of Contract Law, 2007–2008 Statutory Supplement (Aspen Publishers 2007) (with Nathan M. Crystal & Harry G. Prince).

Rules of Contract Law, 2005–2006 Statutory Supplement (Aspen Publishers 2005) (with Nathan M. Crystal & Harry G. Prince).

Problems in Contract Law (Aspen Law & Business 5th ed. 2003 & Stat. Supps. 2003–2004) (with Nathan M. Crystal & Harry G. Prince).

Rules of Contract Law, 2003–2004 Statutory Supplement (Aspen Publishers 2003) (with Nathan M. Crystal & Harry G. Prince).

Rules of Contract Law, 2001–2002 Statutory Supplement (Aspen Publishers 2001) (with Nathan M. Crystal & Harry G. Prince).

Problems in Contract Law (Aspen Law & Business 4th ed. 1999) (with Nathan M. Crystal & Harry G. Prince).

Rules of Contract Law: Selections from the Uniform Commercial Code, the CISG, the Restatement Second of Contracts, and the UNIDROIT Principles (Aspen Law & Business 1999) (with Nathan M. Crystal & Harry G. Prince).

Problems in Contract Law: Cases and Materials (Little, Brown 3d ed. 1993) (with Nathan M. Crystal).

Rules of Contract Law: Selections from the Uniform Commercial Second of Contracts Code, the CISG, and the Restatement (Little, Brown 1993) (with Nathan M. Crystal).

Problems in Contract Law: Cases and Materials (Little, Brown 2d ed. 1987) (with Nathan M. Crystal).

Rules of Contract Law: Selections from the Uniform Commercial Code and the Restatement Second of Contracts (Little, Brown 1987) (with Nathan M. Crystal).

Commercial Damages: A Guide to Remedies in Business Litigation (Matthew Bender 1986).

Problems in Contract Law: Cases and Materials (Little, Brown 1976).

Journal Articles

Is There a “Duty to Read”?, 66 Hastings L.J. 1083 (2015). FULLTEXT

Cases and Controversies: Some Things to Do with Contracts Cases, 88 Wash. L. Rev. 1357 (2013). FULLTEXT

Contract Law Walks the Plank: Carnival Cruise Lines v. Shute, 12 Nev. L.J. 553 (2012). FULLTEXT

Blowing the Whistle on Mandatory Arbitration: Unconscionability as a Signaling Device, 46 San Diego L. Rev. 609 (2009). FULLTEXT

Opting Out or Copping Out? An Argument for Strict Scrutiny of Individual Contracts, 40 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 95 (2006). FULLTEXT

An Offer You Can’t Revoke, 2004 Wis. L. Rev. 309 (2004). FULLTEXT

Taking Contracts Private: The Quiet Revolution in Contract Law, 71 Fordham L. Rev. 761 (2002). FULLTEXT

Rescuing Reliance: The Perils of Promissory Estoppel, 49 Hastings L.J. 1191 (1998). FULLTEXT SSRN

Judgment Call: Theoretical Approaches to Contract Decision-Making, 1988 Ann. Surv. Am. L. 307 (1988). FULLTEXT

Norman Redlich (Dean, New York University School of Law), 63 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 5 (1988). FULLTEXT

Reliance in the Revised Restatement: The Proliferation of Promissory Estoppel, 81 Colum. L. Rev. 52 (1981). FULLTEXT

Protecting the Buyer of Previously Encumbered Goods: Another Plea for Revision of UCC Section 9-307(I), 15 Ariz. L. Rev. 861 (1973). FULLTEXT

Sex Discrimination by Law: A Study in Judicial Perspective, 46 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 675 (1971) (with John D. Johnston, Jr.). FULLTEXT

Enforcing the Contract to Bargain, 44 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 673 (1969). FULLTEXT

Contracts, 1967 Ann. Surv. Am. L. 405 (1967) (with James W. Carroll & James A. Clarkson). FULLTEXT

Contracts, 1966 Ann. Surv. Am. L. 133 (1966). FULLTEXT

Trusts and Succession, 1965 Ann. Surv. Am. L. 467 (1965). FULLTEXT

Trusts and Administration, 1964 Ann. Surv. Am. L. 517 (1964). FULLTEXT

Chapters In Books

Is There a ‘Duty to Read’?, in Revisiting the Contracts Scholarship of Stewart Macaulay: On the Empirical and the Lyrical 315 (Jean Braucher ed., Hart 2013). AMAZON

Unconscionability in American Contract Law: A Twenty First Century Survey, in Commercial Contract Law: A Transatlantic Perspective 309 (Larry A. DiMatteo, Qi Zhou, Severine Saintier & Keith Rowley eds., Cambridge Univ. Press 2013). AMAZON

Contract Law, in Fundamentals of American Law 201 (Alan B. Morrison ed., Oxford Univ. Press 1996). CATALOG

Book Reviews

The Promise of the Future—and Vice Versa: Some Reflections on the Metamorphosis of Contract Law, 82 Mich. L. Rev. 932 (1984) (reviewing E. Allan Farnsworth, Contracts (1982)).

Education

• New York University School of Law
  J.D., Law

• Denison University
  B.A., Undergraduate Studies

Accomplishments

• Lifetime Achievement Award
  Awarded for Contracts Teaching at the Sixth International Contracts Conference at UNLV Law School. 2010

• Legal Teaching Award
  Awarded by the New York University Law School Alumni Association. 1995

• Order of the Coif
  Member of the honor society for United States law school graduates. 1970