Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2019
Abstract
The last few years have brought a renewed appreciation of the costs of nondisclosure agreements that suppress information about sexual wrongdoing. Recently passed bills in a number of states, including New York and California, has attempted to deal with such hush contracts. But such legislation is often incomplete, and many courts and commentators continue to ask if victims of harassment can sign enforceable settlements that conceal serious, potentially metastasizing, social harms. In this Article, we argue that employing the public policy doctrine, courts ought to generally refuse to enforce hush agreements, especially those created by organizations. We restate public policy as a defense which should to be concerned with managing externalities, and which expresses a legitimating account of contract law.
Keywords
#metoo, sexual harassment, contracts, public policies, externalities
Publication Title
Washington University Law Review
Repository Citation
Hoffman, David A. and Lampmann, Erik, "Hushing Contracts" (2019). All Faculty Scholarship. 2048.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/2048
Included in
Contracts Commons, Courts Commons, Labor and Employment Law Commons, Law and Economics Commons, Law and Gender Commons, Law and Society Commons, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons, Public Law and Legal Theory Commons, Public Policy Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons
Publication Citation
97 Wash. U. L. Rev. 165 (2019)