What is Contract Law “About”? Speech Act Theory and a Critique of “Skeletal Promises”

What is contract law “about”? One way of looking at it is to conceive of the subjectmatter of contract law in terms of promises – somewhat like tort law revolves around the concepts of accident or harm. Much like accidents -first-year law students are taught -promises are “out there” in the world, to be classified and distinguished so as to privilege some with legal enforceability. There is a language/world of promises, this approach seems to indicate, and a language/world of contracts. It is a main function of contract law to perform translations from the one to the other. Not all promises are translatable into contracts, and the rules and conditions for translation are what is otherwise known as the law of “formation” of contract. Thus tort or contract law do not create the occurrences they subsequently apply to – the world/language of accidents or promises. Unlike some areas more intensively laden with legal constructs – corporate law comes to mind – this “aboutness” approach considers contract law as initially regulative in its relation to promises. It regulates pre-legal promises, ascribing to some – constitutively –