I sporadically find myself discussing the nexus between contract drafting and contract law, or rather the contract law that’s taught in the first year of law school.
A reader pointed out to me this post on the Conglomerate Blog, which offers a musical analogy to explain the relationship. Buried deep in the comments to that post is my own analogy. As it might be of interest to readers of this blog, I hereby exhume it:
Drafting a contract is like designing and building a house. Contract law is like the constraints that come into play in determining what the house should look like and what materials you should use: the force of gravity, the tensile strength of steel, the combustibility of sheetrock … Those constraints are fundamental, but they quickly become second nature to experienced architects and builders, who are able to focus their attention on matters more immediately relevant to their clients’ needs.
If you have an analogy that you think works better, by all means offer it in the comments—the more outlandish, the better!
I think the analogy you offered is just fine; that said, I’ll offer a slightly sillier one, modeled after the original. “Contract law is like the constraints that come into play in [cooking]: the [way meat browns in a skillet, the prerequisites for caramelizing onions, the role of salt] … Those constraints are fundamental, but they quickly become second nature to experienced [cooks and chefs], who are able to focus their attention on matters more immediately relevant to [the diners’ desires].
Perhaps this came to me because I’m a fan of the Food Network’s Alton Brown, who focuses on the underlying techniques, principles and chemistry over mere recipes. Then again, perhaps it just means I should break for lunch!
Both the analogies sounded good. But the later is tastier.
It would be better to refer to consider the incombustibility of sheetrock.
Tom: I'm pleased that you're wandering through the archives. As to your point, I think that "combustibility" could be read as suggesting a spectrum. But I have no idea how in constructing my metaphor I decided to allude to whether sheetrock burns. Ken