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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Derek WhaymanORCiD
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Cambridge University Press, 2021.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
This article considers the history and nature of the ‘modern rule of releases’, concerning compromises to settle or preclude litigation. The rule holds that only matters the parties had contemplated as well as what they intended to release will in fact be released, even if the compromise has been made in the most general terms. Thus the rule is engaged when the releasor executes a general release but does not appreciate the existence of some of the claims the words used purport to release. This article shows how the rule is a confusion of different conceptual bases and lines of authority and was created by accidentally muddling them together. It argues that despite this, it successfully straddles both bases and functions well conceptually and serves a vital role.
Author(s): Whayman D
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Legal Studies
Year: 2021
Volume: 41
Issue: 3
Pages: 493-510
Online publication date: 08/04/2021
Acceptance date: 01/03/2021
Date deposited: 02/03/2021
ISSN (print): 0261-3875
ISSN (electronic): 1748-121X
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
URL: https://doi.org/10.1017/lst.2021.18
DOI: 10.1017/lst.2021.18
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