The second edition engages students and holds their attention through the use of modern examples and current events. The book's careful selection of principal cases keeps the best of the classic opinions familiar to professors and adds contemporary disputes that students readily grasp, such as issues of contractual excuse due to the coronavirus pandemic. The opinions are sculpted to ensure robust discussion—from formation involving the heavy metal band Megadeth to mistake arising out of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

Cases are animated and students challenged with engaging problems and examples based on actual cases better narrated than excerpted, such as the sale of Banksy's self-destructing artwork and the disputed ownership of a valuable T-Rex fossil. Ethical issues and transactional drafting issues are raised throughout the text. Problems and cases are reflective of diversity, aided by the modern focus of the book. Notes and questions follow cases to prepare students for class discussion, and all relevant Restatement and UCC materials are reproduced for convenient reference.