The Contractualization of Disability Rights Law

Abstract

What body of law determines the content and scope of disability rights in the United States? The conventional wisdom is that the rights of disabled individuals are enshrined in and shaped by an array of civil rights statutes. While this answer is correct, it is incomplete. As this Article shows, U.S. disability rights are also built upon contract law concepts and doctrines. For example, in interpreting disability rights statutes, courts have turned to the parol evidence rule, the duty of good faith, impossibility, materiality, duress, and mistake. Although not explicitly enumerated in disability rights statutes, these contract doctrines can dramatically affect the way these laws are applied. By closely examining the role contract law plays in the adjudication of four disability rights statutes, this Article offers the first in-depth analysis of the contractualization of disability rights law. It reveals that there is a mismatch between the goals underlying the contract paradigm courts use to resolve disability rights disputes, on the one hand, and the normative underpinnings of disability rights law, on the other. Specifically, courts tend to use a general, commercial contract paradigm, which focuses on efficient transactions between sophisticated parties, whereas disability rights statutes seek to promote equality and human dignity. This mismatch is problematic, the Article argues, because it operates to the detriment of disabled individuals-the very people disability rights statutes are supposed to protect. For example, courts have invoked a strict form of the parol evidence rule to bar disabled students from introducing oral promises made by school districts that were not incorporated into the final written educational plan for the child. This Article does not, however, propose abandoning the contractualization of disability rights law. Instead, it asserts that contract law, broadly construed, should be part of the disability rights framework, as long as it is calibrated to match the values underlying disability rights statutes. Thus, this Article proposes to change the contract paradigm upon which courts rely—from a general, commercial approach to a set of rules that recognize the specific obstacles disabled individuals face, including information asymmetry and bargaining imbalances.

Keywords: Disability Law, Contract Law, Health Law, Legal Theory, Employment Law, Education Law