Franchising: Cases, Materials, and Problems - Alexander Moore Meiklejohn

Franchising: Cases, Materials, and Problems Alexander Moore Meiklejohn ISBN 9781627223386

The concept of franchising dates back at least to the Middle Ages, when artisans were permitted to display guild signs but were required to meet specific standards before practicing their trades. In its modern form, franchising emerged through the Singer Sewing Company’s distribution system and later evolved into today’s sophisticated franchise models exemplified by brands such as McDonald’s. Today, thousands of franchise systems operate across the United States.

Despite its long commercial history, franchise law as an academic discipline is relatively young. Many existing casebooks are authored primarily by academics whose careers have focused on teaching. This casebook takes a different approach. While some contributors are full-time faculty members and others have taught franchising at law schools, the majority have spent most of their careers in private practice. Collectively, the authors bring more than 500 years of real-world experience advising clients and confronting the practical issues explored in these pages. Their combined expertise offers a distinctive blend of theoretical insight and practical perspective, grounded in extensive experience with the legal and policy challenges inherent in franchising as a business model.

Franchising Cases, Materials, & Problems is designed specifically for use in a franchise law course. The introductory material and the chapter on the history of franchising provide a broad foundation for topics examined in greater depth throughout the book. Instructors wishing to emphasize the role of intellectual property in franchise law may assign the chapters on trademarks, trade secrets, and copyright, along with relevant portions of other chapters. Those focusing on regulatory concerns may instead emphasize the chapters on disclosure and franchise relationship laws, supplemented as appropriate. Together, the regulatory chapters raise important and thought-provoking questions about American federalism.

The chapter addressing alternative business relationships underscores both the difficulty of defining the legal term “franchise” with precision and the wide range of commercial arrangements that may fall within the scope of franchise regulation. Through its structure and content, this casebook provides a flexible, practice-informed framework for teaching franchise law.

Franchising: Cases, Materials, and Problems Alexander Moore Meiklejohn ISBN 9781627223386, 978-1627223386 & 9781627223393

Editor
Alexander Moore Meiklejohn