CHARLES FRIED: Let me give you the first example, the invitation to dinner.

I'm a professor as you know, and Portia is this very nice person
who is my student.
She just graduated last year and she's got a job in a big fancy law firm.
It turns out that Vincent, the managing partner in the law firm,
the person on whom her career depends, has been my student too many years ago.
In casual conversation, Vincent mentioned to Portia
that he would like very much to be back in touch with me.
So Portia thinks, wouldn't it be nice-- she's a very good cook--
if she and her husband invited Vincent and me to dinner.
She would cook a wonderful dinner and I would have a wonderful dinner to eat.
And a good time would be had by all and this
would have a very good effect on her career and her standing in the firm.
All of us are very busy, but we end up finding
an evening that works for Vincent, for Portia, and her husband, and for me.
So there we go.
She spends a lot of time, spends a lot of money buying the food and the wine.
It is going to be marvelous.
And you know what happens?
I just don't show up.
It is not even that I forgot.
Something came up and I figured, oh well, what do I care?
I would really rather go to the movies with my friend
and I just don't show up.
What's worse, I don't even call.
And instead of a good time being had by all, a really bad time was had.
The dinner was spoiled because Portia tried to keep it warm
hoping that I would show up.
Vincent was annoyed and, altogether, what
could have been a nice occasion leaving good feeling all around
was a really awful occasion.
Well, I made a promise that I would show up for dinner.
It was even a kind of bargain.
I would show up and she would cook dinner.
It's a little bit like the restaurant example.
But is that a promise that the government should stand by?
She is really, really angry and she decides she's going to sue me.
And you know what?
Portia is going to lose.
Why is she going to lose?
Portia is going to lose because an invitation to dinner
is the kind of informal, friendly occasion,
a kind of informal, friendly interchange that nobody
expects is going to end up in court no matter what happens.
It just isn't the kind of thing which people think
is going to create legal relations.
It certainly creates a moral relation, and I have behaved miserably.
So this is the first principle that we can apply to a given case.
We can ask if the parties intended to create legal relations.
Sure, it is true that the invitation to dinner created expectations,
but it is not something that anybody thinks should end up in court.
Why not?
Can you think of other situations and relations
where people make promises to each other,
but don't expect to end up in court about them?