Insurance, Contract, and the Doctrine of Reasonable Expectations

This article examines the connections between the doctrine of reasonable expectations and the law of contract. Judge Keeton urged in his 1970 article that protecting the insured\u27s reasonable expectations is a better justification for results in many reported cases than the rationales offered by judges! Without disagreeing with that point, it can be claimed, as this article does, that insurance law\u27s efforts to explain outcomes that contradict the plain language of contractual text are appropriately viewed as a subset of a larger effort to rationalize contract law with the challenges presented by the widespread use of standardized forms in consumer transactions. When viewed from this different perspective, Judge Keeton\u27s 1970 article was important not only for what it said about the contours of insurance law but also for what it suggested about the stance insurance law should take in an ongoing-and still continuing -battle for the soul of contract law