Sidney DeLong

Sidney DeLong

Professor Emeritus

 Sullivan Hall 430

 206-398-4013

Email Sidney

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

  • Commercial Law
  • Contracts

EDUCATION

  • B.A., Vanderbilt University, 1969
  • J.D., Yale University Law School, 1974; chair, Yale Moot Court; winner, Harlan Fiske Stone Prize for Appellate Competition; winner, Sutherland Cup Moot Court Competition
  • Admitted to practice in Colorado; U.S. District Court, District of Colorado; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

Biography

Professor DeLong graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1969 with a BA in philosophy and obtained a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1974, after two years in the U.S. Army. He was Chairman of the Moot Court Board. He then practiced in Denver, Colorado for 11 years as a civil litigator, doing trial and appellate work in complex cases involving construction claims, employment, antitrust, class actions, breach of contract, fraud, and insurance insolvency. He has taught courses in Contracts, Sales, Secured Transactions, Payment Systems, Remedies, Jurisprudence, The Jurisprudence of Social Justice, Law and Interpretation, Professional Responsibility, and Legal Writing, and has co-taught Complex Civil Litigation, Language and the Law, and Business Transactions. He has won the annual outstanding teacher award three times.

Professor DeLong has published articles in the Wisconsin Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Indiana Law Review, The San Diego Law Review and the University of Denver Law Review. His areas of published scholarship include contract theory, promissory estoppel, restitution, blackmail, and perjury, as well as a modest body of legal humor.

Publications

Articles

Testimonial Consistency: The Hobgoblin of the Federal False Declaration Statute, 66 Denver U.L. Rev. (1989) 135-177.

The Efficiency of Disgorgement as a Remedy for Breach of Contract, 22 Ind. L. Rev. 737-775 (1989).

Blackmailers, Bribe Takers, and the Second Paradox, 141 U. Penn. L. Rev. 1663-1693 (1993).

The New Requirement of Enforcement Reliance in Commercial Promissory Estoppel: Section 90 as Catch-22, 1997 Wis. L. Rev. 943-1022 (1997).

Placid, Clear-Seeming Words: Some Realism about the New Formalism (With Particular Attention to Promissory Estoppel), 38 San Diego L. Rev. 13 (2001).

What is a Contract? 67 S. Car. L. Rev. 99 (2016).

Coasean Blackmail: Protection Markets and Protection Rackets, 67 U. Kans. L. Rev. 281 (2018).

Book Reviews

An Agnostic’s Bible, Review of Contract and Related Obligation: Theory, Doctrine, and Practice, 3rd Ed. Summers and Hillman, 20 Seattle U. L. Rev. 295-317 (1997).

Strategic Signaling for Norm Behavior, Review of Eric Posner, Law and Social Norms, Jurist Dec. 6, 2000.

Book Chapter

How to do Legal Things with Words: The Contracts Scholarship of Peter Tiersma, in Speaking of Language and Law (Ainsworth and Solan, eds.) Oxford University Press 2015.

SSRN

Arbitration Conversation.

Selected Panel Paper Presentations

Statutory Disgorgement Remedies for Breach of Contract and the Tracing Problem, panel presentation at International Contracts Conference, Fort Worth Texas, February 25, 2006.

Meta-Contacts, Anti-Contracts and Other Anomalies, panel presentation at International Contracts Conference, Houston, Texas, February 23, 2007.

The Battle of the Forms Never Ends: Invoices as Integrations Under Article 2, panel presentation at International Contracts Conference, Sacramento California; February 8, 2008.

Putting Words into Other People’s Mouths: Dictated Speech Acts and the Law panel presentation, Law and Society Association Annual Conference, Montreal Quebec. May 30, 2008.

Penalty Contracts in Intimate Relationships, panel presentation, Law and Society Association Annual Conference, Denver, Colorado: May 2009.

Standing Idly By: Rational Mitigation and the Offsetting Benefits Rule panel presentation, International Contracts Conference, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law: February 2010.

Problems of Proving Consequential Gains in Disgorgement and Damages Claims panel presentation, International Contracts Conference, Stetson University, St. Petersburg Florida: February 2011.

Intentional Foul: A Deconstruction of Hohfeldian Rights, panel presentation, Law and Society Conference, San Francisco, California. June 3, 2011.

Pricing a Unicorn: The Chatlos Problem (Reconciling Value and Price in Article 2 Damages) panel presentation, International Contracts Conference, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego California. March 3, 2012.

“Can You Hear Me Now?” Acoustic Separation in the Law of Contract Reduces the Moral Hazard Created by Reliance-Protecting Rules, or Having Your Cake and Eating it Too, panel presentation, International Contracts Conference, Austin Texas,: February 22, 2013.

Lex Fiat: The Legal Declarative in Speech Act Theory panel presentation 2014 Law and Society Conference, Minneapolis, Minn. May 30-June 2, 2014.

“Not Exactly”: Do Sub-purchasers/Assignees of Article 2 Warranties Thereby Acquire Their Assignors’ Remedial Rights? panel presentation International Contracts Conference, St. Thomas School of Law, Miami Florida, February 22, 2014.

Acoustic Separation in the Family: The Utility of Unenforceable Reconciliation Contracts panel presentation, International Contracts Conference, William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada. February 27, 2015.

Curbing the Judicial Instinct: Limiting a Court’s Ability to Supply “Missing” Terms or to Imply Terms panel presentation International Contracts Conference, William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada,. February 28, 2015.

Jephthah’s Daughter and Morally-efficient Breach of Promise, panel presentation at International Contracts Conference, St. Mary’s Law School, San Antonio Texas. February 27, 2016.

The Notice of Breach Dilemma: Conflict and Cooperation in Eastern Airlines v McDonnell Douglas, panel presentation at International Contracts Conference, St. Mary’s Law School, San Antonio Texas. February 26, 2016.

“The Farmer and the Cowman Should be Friends”: Coase, Cows, Corn and Coercion, panel presentation at International Contracts Conference, Southwestern School of Law, Los Angeles, California. February 23, 2017.

The Notice-Forfeiture Rule of § 2-607 (3): An Anachronism in Search of a New Career, panel presentation at International Contracts Conference, Barry School of Law, Orlando, Florida. February 2018.

Contract and Related Obligation: Pathways and Pitfalls, paper and panel presentation at International Contracts Conference, Tulane University School of Law, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 8-9, 2012.

Economically Anomalous Contracts Cases, paper and panel presentation at International Contracts Conference, Tulane University School of Law, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 8-9, 2012.

Recent Continuing Legal Education Presentations

Constructive Trusts, Proceeds as Preferences, and Tort Claims, Bankruptcy Bar Association’s 28th Annual Bankruptcy Seminar and Retreat, Winthrop Wa., June 15-16, 2018 (19-page paper)