Sauron’s Eminent Domain
Yesterday, Boing Boing linked to a law student’s hilarious analysis of Sauron’s contract with the dwarves in Fellowship of the Ring (read: “Help me find the One Ring, and I will reward you. Refuse and you will regret it.”). Since my Dad has a lot of expertise in contracts, I decided to forward the post to him to get a second opinion. Here’s his take:
Sauron’s last offer was not a contract at all. Even if it was, it is null and void in the offer due to duress. The other two offers are unilateral contracts only if the dwarves begin to perform. It is likely that if they acknowledged the contract by setting out on the path to acquire this trifle, they could be sued, without a statement of best efforts given the difficulty of their task and without a specified delivery date. If I were the dwarves, I would not act on the promise nor rely on the reward due to the uncertainty of the task, and because of the distinct possibility of Sauron’s almost certain success in litigation, and one’s suspicion of his not delivering on the reward once he had the ring and the power to dissolve the pact due to his newly acquired Supremacy of the land. Rex lex.
Bottom line: enter into contracts with the Flaming Eye of Barad-Dûr at your own risk!