# 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?