EAST LANSING, Mich. – The information age is influencing the language of contracts and may be shifting the balance of power in negotiating them.

Legal scholars will consider this issue and others during a conference from 8-5:30 p.m. on Friday, March 31, at Michigan State University College of Law. The all-day event, titled “Power, Inequality and the Bargain: The Role of Bargaining Power in the Law of Contract,” is open to faculty, students, attorneys and regulators.

“Our legal conceptions of bargaining power were born in the social, political and economic ferment of the early 20^th century, drastically altering our approaches to contract, labor, antitrust and a host of other legal doctrines,” said Daniel D. Barnhizer, an MSU law professor. “The similarly dramatic impacts of the now mature information era demand a conscious reassessment of the continuing role of this dynamic and elusive legal construct.”

Barnhizer and the Michigan State Law Review will host the symposium. Omri Ben-Shahar, director of the John M. Olin Center for Law & Economics at the University of Michigan Law School, will present the keynote address.

During the symposium papers will be presented by law professors from the following institutions: University of Southern California Law School, University of Florida Warrington College of Business, Washington & Lee University School of Law, University of Cincinnati College of Law, Florida State University College of Law, University of Denver Sturm College of Law and MSU College of Law.

The conference fee is $75, and information and registration are available online at http://www.law.msu.edu/bargaining. Students may attend conference sessions at no charge.

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MSU College of Law was founded as the Detroit College of Law in 1891. The college affiliated with Michigan State University in 1995 and moved to the university’s East Lansing campus in 1997. Today, the college is one of only two private law schools to be affiliated with a research university.