Certainty and uncertainty in federal government contracts law

When creating the Federal Circuit, one of Congress' principal concerns was the special need for nationwide uniformity in certain areas of the law. The Federal Circuit was designed to provide a prompt, definitive answer to legal questions in areas of law where appellate courts reach inconsistent decisions on the same issue, or in which courts apply the law unevenly when faced with the facts of individual cases. In 2011, the Federal Circuit made substantial progress in achieving its objective of providing definitive answers in government contracts law. In three appeals, however, the Federal Circuit injected substantial uncertainty into its government contracts jurisprudence. More so than in past years, it is difficult to identify unifying themes in the Federal Circuit's precedential government contracts. What struck them instead was the ability of most of those decisions -- disparate as they may be -- to further Congress's desire for definitive answer to important questions in government contracts law.