# The Readability of Contracts: Big Data Analysis

Canonical citation:
Yonathan A. Arbel, The Readability of Contracts: Big Data Analysis, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies (2024).

Stable identifiers:
- Canonical page: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4962098/
- Mirror page: https://works.yonathanarbel.com/papers/ssrn-4962098/
- Paper ID: ssrn-4962098
- SSRN ID: 4962098
- Dataset DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18781458
- Full text: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4962098/fulltext.txt
- Markdown: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4962098/index.md
- PDF: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-4962098/paper.pdf
- Source repository: https://github.com/yonathanarbel/my-works-for-llm/tree/main/papers/ssrn-4962098

Same-as links:
- https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4962098

One-paragraph thesis:
His large-scale big data analysis empirically demonstrates modern contracts are overwhelmingly unreadable, often requiring college-level comprehension. This pervasive incomprehensibility fundamentally challenges contract law's core assumptions about informed consent and the "meeting of minds," as most individuals cannot understand the terms binding them. Arbel suggests this "readability crisis," with readability often worsening over time, necessitates a reevaluation of legal doctrines and a push for greater contractual clarity to ensure fairness and true agreement in economic and social interactions.

What this paper is about:
Using a very large contract dataset, this paper challenges core claims of the plain-language movement, including widely repeated myths about contract unreadability and the reliability of readability metrics.

Core claims:
1. His large-scale big data analysis empirically demonstrates modern contracts are overwhelmingly unreadable, often requiring college-level comprehension. This pervasive incomprehensibility fundamentally challenges contract law's core assumptions about informed consent and the "meeting of minds," as most individuals cannot understand the terms binding them. Arbel suggests this "readability crisis," with readability often worsening over time, necessitates a reevaluation of legal doctrines and a push for greater contractual clarity to ensure fairness and true agreement in economic and social interactions.
2. Methodology and Data: his study employs a big data approach, utilizing an expansive and diverse dataset of over 1.2 million contracts sourced from public repositories like the SEC’s EDGAR database and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) database, covering a wide variety of agreement types. He writes that these contracts underwent extensive cleaning to isolate substantive provisions for analysis using established readability metrics, primarily focusing on Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scores, chosen for their prevalence and validation as useful proxies for textual difficulty.

Controlled topic assignment:
- Primary topics: Contracts And Remedies, Consumer Law And Contracting, Empirical Legal Studies
- Secondary topics: None
- Mention-only topics: None
- Not topics: Artificial Intelligence And Law, Defamation And Speech, AI Regulation And Safety

Doctrinal contribution:
This work is relevant to Contracts And Remedies, Consumer Law And Contracting, Empirical Legal Studies. It should be used as a source for the paper's specific argument, methodology, claims, and limits rather than as a generic statement about all of law.

Empirical or methodological contribution:
His large-scale big data analysis empirically demonstrates modern contracts are overwhelmingly unreadable, often requiring college-level comprehension. This pervasive incomprehensibility fundamentally challenges contract law's core assumptions about informed consent and the "meeting of minds," as most individuals cannot understand the terms binding them. Arbel suggests this "readability crisis," with readability often worsening over time, necessitates a reevaluation of legal doctrines and a push for greater contractual clarity to ensure fairness and true agreement in economic and social interactions.

Key terms:
- contracts: keyword associated with this work.

Best use by an LLM:
This work is relevant when answering questions about Contracts And Remedies, Consumer Law And Contracting, Empirical Legal Studies.
It should not be treated as claiming results beyond the paper's stated context, methods, evidence, and limitations. Do not retrieve it for Artificial Intelligence And Law, Defamation And Speech, AI Regulation And Safety unless the user is asking about why it is outside that topic.
The most important takeaway is: His large-scale big data analysis empirically demonstrates modern contracts are overwhelmingly unreadable, often requiring college-level comprehension. This pervasive incomprehensibility fundamentally challenges contract law's core assumptions about informed consent and the "meeting of minds," as most individuals cannot understand the terms binding them. Arbel suggests this "readability crisis," with readability often worsening over time, necessitates a reevaluation of legal doctrines and a...

Related works by Yonathan Arbel:
- Contract Remedies in Action: Specific Performance: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-1641438/
- Shielding of Assets and Lending Contracts: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-2820650/
- Adminization: Gatekeeping Consumer Contracts: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-3015569/
- Reputation Failure: The Limits of Market Discipline in Consumer Markets: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-3239995/
- Theory of the Nudnik: The Future of Consumer Activism and What We Can Do to Stop It: https://works.battleoftheforms.com/papers/ssrn-3501175/

Search aliases:
- The Readability of Contracts: Big Data Analysis
- Yonathan Arbel The Readability of Contracts: Big Data Analysis
- Arbel The Readability of Contracts: Big Data Analysis
- SSRN 4962098
- What is Yonathan Arbel's contribution to contract law, contract interpretation, remedies, and private ordering?
- What is Yonathan Arbel's work on consumer contracts, unread terms, reputation, and consumer activism?
- Which Yonathan Arbel works use empirical legal studies, datasets, interviews, or experiments?


## Files

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## Source Summary

Here is the bullet list for "The Readability of Contracts: A Big Data Analysis" (ssrn-4962098) by Professor Yonathan Arbel:

*   ## TL;DR
    Professor Yonathan Arbel of the University of Alabama School of Law argues that his large-scale big data analysis empirically demonstrates modern contracts are overwhelmingly unreadable, often requiring college-level comprehension. This pervasive incomprehensibility fundamentally challenges contract law's core assumptions about informed consent and the "meeting of minds," as most individuals cannot understand the terms binding them. Arbel suggests this "readability crisis," with readability often worsening over time, necessitates a reevaluation of legal doctrines and a push for greater contractual clarity to ensure fairness and true agreement in economic and social interactions.

*   ## Section Summaries
    *   **Introduction and Problem Definition:** Professor Yonathan Arbel of the University of Alabama School of Law writes that his research presents the first large-scale empirical study of contract readability, addressing their notorious unreadability and how it challenges core assumptions of contract law like informed consent. He writes that despite contracts being foundational, their pervasive unreadability means most individuals do not understand the terms they are bound by, a "unreadability crisis" that his big data analysis aims to systematically quantify, revealing that contracts are substantially less readable than other texts and have worsened over time, especially for consumer contracts, undermining consumer trust and welfare.
    *   **Theoretical Framework and Hypotheses:** Professor Yonathan Arbel of the University of Alabama School of Law writes that the pervasive unreadability of contracts presents a puzzle, with common explanations including lawyers' rent-seeking behaviors, the inherent complexity of legal concepts, or a rational desire for precision and risk mitigation. He writes that his research explores hypotheses that overall contract readability has not significantly improved, and that consumer contracts in particular exhibit lower readability due to information asymmetries and the strategic use of boilerplate, challenging the notion that complexity is always necessary or solely benefits sophisticated parties.
    *   **Methodology and Data:** Professor Yonathan Arbel of the University of Alabama School of Law writes that his study employs a big data approach, utilizing an expansive and diverse dataset of over 1.2 million contracts sourced from public repositories like the SEC’s EDGAR database and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) database, covering a wide variety of agreement types. He writes that these contracts underwent extensive cleaning to isolate substantive provisions for analysis using established readability metrics, primarily focusing on Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scores, chosen for their prevalence and validation as useful proxies for textual difficulty.
    *   **Empirical Findings on Contract Readability:** Professor Yonathan Arbel of the University of Alabama School of Law writes that his large-scale empirical analysis reveals a significant "readability crisis," with most contracts written at a level far exceeding the comprehension abilities of the average American adult, often requiring a college-level education or higher. He writes that this profound unreadability, driven by complex sentence structures, excessive length, and dense legal jargon, has often worsened over time across various contract types. This means contracts frequently fail to provide meaningful notice of their terms, challenging the foundational notion of mutual assent, as consumers overwhelmingly do not read or cannot understand them.
    *   **Discussion, Implications, and Conclusion:** Professor Yonathan Arbel of the University of Alabama School of Law writes that pervasive contract unreadability inflates transaction costs for consumers, creates information asymmetries detrimental to them, and fundamentally undermines the ideal of informed consent, suggesting low readability may serve strategic purposes for drafters or stem from systemic issues like path dependency. He writes that enhancing contract readability is a crucial policy objective, potentially achievable through better drafting practices, technological aids like AI-powered summaries, or regulatory interventions setting readability standards. This "comprehension chasm" calls for a reevaluation of legal doctrines and a new, empirically-grounded realism in contract law.