1 Introduction

When I started teaching commercial law 34 years ago, Elizabeth Warren was my colleague and a mentor. She has since moved on to more prominent pursuits.2 Before she left the University of Texas, however, I learned a few things about her approach to teaching the subject. In her introductory class, she discussed with the students the fundamental purpose of commercial law. Why do we have commercial law? What do we as a society seek to accomplish with commercial law? How should we evaluate how well commercial law achieves its goals? The short answer was that the purpose of commercial law is to facilitate commerce. That pithy summary of purpose has since become one of the themes that informs my course each time that I teach the subject.