Extrinsic Evidence, Parol Evidence, and the Parol Evidence Rule: A Call for Courts to Use the Reasoning of the Restatements Rather than the Rhetoric of Common Law

This article is an example of what Professor Richard Epstein would call Contracts small. According to Professor Richard Epstein, \u27Contracts small\u27 relates to contract law at the doctrinal level; it focuses on the rules of contract formation and performance; the everyday \u27stuff of lawyer\u27s law.\u27 This article looks to the Restatement of Contracts (hereafter Restatement ) and the Restatement (Second) of Contracts (hereafter Restatement Second ) for answers to the questions raised by the two problems. The Restatements generally have both been praised and condemned for their focus on doctrinal issues-on what Richard Epstein calls the everyday stuff of lawyer\u27s law. As indicated earlier, the everyday stuff of lawyer\u27s law includes the terms extrinsic evidence, parol evidence,\u27\u27 and parol evidence rule