A timely response to the pressing issue of public pension reform, The Public Pension Crisis explores the complex relationship between contract law and government pensions, specifically focusing on the Contract Clause and related state Pension Clauses. Analyzing over a decade of litigation, the book highlights the evolving role of pension contracts in constitutional law and examines more than 70 landmark cases to establish a clear, principled framework for determining when pension benefits qualify as contractual obligations. T. Leigh Anenson presents a unified theory to consistently treat public and private pensions, balancing the interests of employees' earned benefits with the financial challenges facing governments. Combining legal scholarship with practical policy insights, Anenson not only provides a much-needed legal perspective on pension reform but also calls for a systematic approach to addressing the retirement security crisis.
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This book explores the Contract Clause's role in public pension reform, analyzing legal challenges and offering a unified contract theory.
Part I. Mapping the Boundaries of Government Power:
1. Introduction;
2.
Charting contract clause constraints;
3. Surveying the legal landscape; Part
II. Making (and Breaking) a Pension Contract:
4. Choosing among conflicting
canons of construction;
5. Examining the evidence of contract;
6. Changing
contract coverage;
7. Unifying public pension contract law;
8. Conclusion;
Index.
T. Leigh Anenson is Professor of Business Law at the University of Maryland and a past president of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business. She has published extensively on government pension law and obligations, receiving numerous awards and court citations. Anenson is the author of Judging Equity: The Fusion of Unclean Hands in US Law (2019).
