Dialogue's Limits: A Modern Approach to Contractual Interpretation

Nicole Spadotto is presenting her research, Dialogue's Limits: A Modern Approach to Contractual Interpretation, on Tuesday 27 October, from 14:00 to 15:00. It's an online session via Microsoft Teams, so you can tune in from wherever you are in Edinburgh rather than heading into town.

Spadotto is an LL.M. candidate at Yale Law School, and this talk is part of the research presentation series run by the Edinburgh Commercial Law PGR Reading Group (CLRG). The group puts together a programme of presentations by and for its members, alongside academic staff, visiting scholars, and guest scholars working in commercial law. Each session follows the same set format: a 30-minute presentation followed by open discussion and a Q&A. It's a supportive, informal environment where researchers and practitioners can develop their work, share ideas, get feedback, and build professional networks.

As for the talk itself, Spadotto takes dialogue theory — something more commonly used in statutory and constitutional interpretation — and applies it to the contractual context. From there, she proposes a framework to determine the outer boundaries of the factual matrix that the Supreme Court of Canada has said courts should consider when interpreting contractual language. If you've got an interest in how courts decide which surrounding facts actually matter when they're figuring out what a contract means, that's the core of it.

It runs from 14:00 to 15:00 on Tuesday 27 October, online via Microsoft Teams, and it's free to attend.