LAW 601 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Uniform Commercial Code, Extortion
Document Summary
Duress and undue influence: defenses regarding improper pressures that go against the fundamental policies of autonomy and freedom of contract. These defenses argue that the party did not really assert his/her own autonomy; rather, the will of someone else (the pressuring party) was substituted for theirs: duress forced or compelled to agree, undue influence unfairly persuaded to agree. Duress: there are two flavors of duress, physical compulsion (restatement 174, much narrower than you might think, literally means that one person physically forces another person to. Courts want parties to be able to bargain hard. Threaten one of : crime, tort, criminal prosecution, bad faith civil prosecution, breach of duty of good faith and fair dealing under a contract*, ** e. breach of contract. A threat by a party to a contract not to perform his contractual duty is not, of itself, improper.
