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Volume 110 - Issue 2

Specific Performance and the Thirteenth Amendment

By Nathan B. Oman. Full text here. 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…

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