Nicolas Cornell (University of Michigan Law School) has posted Third Parties (Research Handbook on the Philosophy of Contract Law, Chen-Wishart & Saprai (eds) (Forthcoming)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Despite the modern trends in contract law, the rules for third-party beneficiaries receive relatively little academic and theoretical attention. They are rarely taught in law schools, receive only scant discussion—if any—in broad theoretical accounts of contract law, and are often regarded as mere peculiarities. It can hardly be said that the topic is not philosophically rich. This Chapter aims to lay out the challenge that third-party beneficiary rules pose for rights-based theories of contract law and to explore the theoretical responses that are available.
Recommended.