The Download of the Week is Specific Performance and the Thirteenth Amendment by Nathan B. Oman. Here is the abstract:
Black-letter law declares that a contract to perform personal services
cannot be specifically enforced. Many courts, scholars, and
commentators have claimed that such enforcement would constitute
“involuntary servitude” under the Thirteenth Amendment. This Article,
however, rejects that conventional wisdom. A careful reading of the
history leading to the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment reveals
that, at the time of its adoption, “involuntary servitude” had a
specific legal meaning, one that did not extend to any specific
enforcement of a personal service contract. Rather, courts that were
forced to draw the line between contract enforcement and “involuntary
servitude” looked to coercion in the creation of the contract, the
length of its duration, the power of the master over the servant, and
the adequacy of the servant’s compensation to determine if enforcement
of an agreement would constitute “involuntary servitude.” Since the
Thirteenth Amendment’s adoption, the U.S. Supreme Court has never found
involuntary servitude in any case except those in which at least one of
these factors and arguably all four of them was present. In short,
neither the original meaning of “involuntary servitude” nor its
subsequent interpretation by the Court justifies a per se prohibition
on specific performance of personal service contracts.
Very interesting & highly recommended.