Sunday, July 20, 2008

On Contract Law and Disney's "The Little Mermaid"

I recently had the opportunity of watching Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” after having not seen it for years. Although it was still a touching coming-of-age story with a great soundtrack and a host of memorable supporting characters, I noticed that there were some glaring plot holes that anyone with a contract law background would have noticed.

For those who have yet to see the movie, I will give you a brief synopsis. King Triton is King of the Sea with several daughters, the youngest of which is a precocious sixteen-year old who has a penchant for getting into difficult situations. Her name is Ariel. Her partner in crime is a flounder aptly named Flounder. After showing a complete disregard for her father’s rules (and missing her musical debut), her father assigns Sebastian, the royal composer, to keep an eye on her. Sebastian ends up being completely hopeless at the task and before long Ariel is back at the surface where she becomes enamored with a human prince named Eric.

Her father discovers her infatuation with the human prince and his daughter’s love for ‘surface’ things and in his anger destroys her collection of artifacts from dry land. Not surprisingly, this act, rather than endearing her to her father, drives her to seek help from Ursula, the Sea Witch. While there she signs a contract trading her voice for her legs. To make the trade permanent, Ariel has to have Eric fall in love with her and give her the “kiss of true love.” If she fails to do so, she will belong to Ursula. And thus begins a legal plot hole so large you could drive a truck through it.

Ursula and her henchmen (hench eels?) do whatever they can to stop Ariel from kissing the prince. The eels knock over a rowboat when Ariel and Eric are about to kiss and Ursula disguises her self as a princess and bewitches Eric. Right before Ariel and Eric attempt a second kiss, Ariel transforms back into a mermaid and Ursula grabs her and dives back into the ocean in a bid to take Ariel back to her lair.

En route, they meet Triton. Ursula pulls out the contract and Triton tries to destroy it with his trident. He is unable to do so and Ursula taunts him by saying that the contract is binding and legal. Triton sacrifices himself by agreeing to shoulder Ariel’s legal obligations.

Really??

First of all, Ariel is a minor and all contracts, as I’m sure that several video rental stores have eventually found out to their chagrin, signed by minors are voidable. All Ariel had to do was repudiate the contract. There is no way that Ursula could have enforced that contract. On turning eighteen, I’m sure that Ariel could have ratified the contract and been liable under it, but there is nothing in the movie to indicate that in the three days from when she signed the contract to when its legality was challenged that she turned eighteen. Part of the reason that contracts with minors are voidable is because teenagers make foolish decisions like Ariel did and sign away their freedom in the proverbial deal with the devil.

Second, Ursula had a duty of good faith and fair dealing, something that is implicit in every contract. Even an evil villain is not exempt from it. Ursula had an obligation to allow Ariel to act unimpeded in her quest to win over Prince Eric. Ursula failed to do this because she and her agents set up obstacles precluding Ariel from fulfilling the terms of the contract. It was her eels that tipped over the row boat right before Eric and Ariel were about to kiss. And Ursula herself bewitched the Prince to stop Ariel from kissing him. I’m just surprised that she took off after Eric and Ursula instead of looking for a competent legal adviser to help her examine her legal options at that point. The movie wouldn’t have been quite as endearing, but it would have a lot more education to the vast hordes of American children who watch it. But I digress; in any case, Ariel would have been released from fulfilling her obligations because Ursula significantly breached her duty of good faith under the contract. Furthermore, even if Ariel was in breach of her contract, Ursula would not have been able to get specific performance of her contract. It is a legal maxim that he who seeks equity must seek to do equity. Ursula had unclean hands and therefore she would have only been entitled to monetary damages.

Lastly, as King of the Sea, Triton could have declared the contract void ab initio because it was contrary to public policy. In the same way that courts hesitate to enforce contracts between criminals, Triton could have decided that it was bad public policy to allow penalty clauses in contracts that require the defaulting party to be turned into a diminutive sea creature and become a possession. I certainly can’t see any value in allowing such provisions to be enforceable, but then again, I’m not a merperson, and I don’t necessary understand the Law of the Sea.

10 comments:

C. L. Hanson said...

By crazy coincidence, I just saw The Little Mermaid the other day (for the first time in years) myself. And it actually crossed my mind to note that since she's a minor the contract wouldn't be binding (at least according to land-people's laws). But you really can't expect real-world accuracy from Disney cartoons. For example, I also noticed that her friend "Flounder" is obviously not a flounder. ;^)

Unknown said...

I think first we have to establish if magic is a legal law, or a physical law.

In physical law, some things are very hard to undo, like cracking eggs.

DPC said...

Flounder isn't a flounder?? A part of my cherished childhood is gone forever! ;)

Good point Zen, but later events at the end of the movie are suggestive that magical law doesn't require any particular payment for a set of legs. Therefore, I conclude that the contract at issue was legal in nature.

CClark said...

Very good insights. I don't actually know you; however, I was studying contract law today and it occurred to me that the contract in Little Mermaid would be voidable or unenforceable for several reasons. So I decided to see if anyone had commented on it. I'm happy to see that you have. :)

LDValencia said...

Sad, but true. Tomorrow I have my Contracts final exam, and some how this came to mind. It was nice to see I'm not alone in this! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

they're all underage! it doesnt matter if she underage. the contract was probably written just for that purpose, to make sure that a 16 year old girl was legally binded.
also, ariel never read the contract, she just signed it. ursula probably put a loophole in it just so she could interfere with ariels quest.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget duress and undue influence.

luvsMbig said...

look, if u actually read the contract you will see that apart from the words "I hereby grant unto Ursula, the witch of the sea,one voice,in exchange for.. & for all eternity" the rest of the contract is written in gibberish or Latin there for we can't amuse that the contract bars interference from it's holder. also the thing is magic "binding and completely unbreakable"

D. Dastardly said...

I OBJECT!

1) Ariel is old enough to not only get married, but to be married with her family present and non-complaining that she is too young to give her consent to such a union. This can only mean that in there world 16 is old enough to enter legal binding contracts.

2) Being tipped over in a boat may kill a mood but it doesn't prevent you from kissing. Secondly, Ariel was to get a kiss not to get married. I would argue that testing how easily the prince could be pulled away from Ariel was Ursula's way of trying to protect her from a man that may prove to be unfaithful.

3) Ursula is a banished person. She does not live in the waters that are part of Ariel father's the kingdom. Technically she is both figuratively and actually operating in International Waters. Ariel's father does not have any legal power over the contract. Ariel swam with out restraint to Ursula's Grotto of her own free will.

Bob Nodik said...

My first observation: on the issue of her age. Culture define adulthood differently; in the US is eighteen, but it hasn't always been. The time setting of the story suggests that sixteen is old enough for legal consent in this jurisdiction. We may reinforce this given that Triton, being the King of the Sea, didn't have the authority to annul the contract.

My second issue is that Ursula deliberately withheld information she knew to be of material value (that Eric was infatuated with her voice) and had planned from the beginning to exploit this ignorance. I'm sure this counts as bad faith, but good luck proving that . She could just as easily say to the judge that she had no idea, and the burden of proof would be on Ariel.

Third issue: Ursula very clearly acted with the intention of hindering Ariel from fulfilling her contractual obligations. Coming to seduce the prince personally—i can't imagine any jury concluding otherwise. On the point of her 'protecting Ariel from a potentially unfaithful husband,' that doesn't hold water (pun intended) given she was willing to allow Ariel to make the attempt in the first place

Fourth issue: on the subject of whether or not Ursula would be allowed to enslave merfolk and turn them into seaweed, we have to again look at the time frame of the setting. Slavery didn't legally end all that long ago so, no matter how immoral it was probably still legal—again, Triton was unable to annul the contract so this is likely the case here .