The State and Freedom of Contract

The State and Freedom of Contract PDF Author:
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804765278
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
The relationship of law to economic freedom has been a vital element in the history of all modern democratic societies. "Freedom of contract" is both a technical term in law, referring to private agreements and promises, and a metaphor often deployed to describe economic liberty. This volume of new essays by eminent legal historians offers fresh perspectives on freedom of contract in both senses of the term, and considers how economic freedom relates to such classic political freedoms as free speech and other Anglo-American constitutional norms. The principal focus of the essays is on broad issues of policy and law, rather than on narrow considerations of legal doctrine. All the contributors reject stereotypes that pervade the existing literature about the allegedly unalloyed individualism of the common law, and show how active state interventions of various kinds have shaped contract law in relation to social change throughout our legal history. Equally, however, they reject shibboleths regarding "bringing the state back in," and take a hard look at the claims of statist ideology regarding the norms and rules that have established the legal boundaries of liberty in the modern industrial and post-industrial eras. The topics covered are Blackstone's claim that property was the "despotic dominion of the private owner" (A. W. B. Simpson), labor and contract (John V. Orth), the influence of philosophical trends on legal innovations (James Gordley), contract and individualism (David Lieberman), the tradition of public rights (Harry N. Scheiber), the formal concept of "liberty of contract" in American law (Charles McCurdy), the interwoven history of labor law and contract law (Arthur McEvoy), public policy in relation to natural resources (Donald Pisani), and globalization of freedom of contract (Martin Shapiro).

The State and Freedom of Contract

The State and Freedom of Contract PDF Author:
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804765278
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 394

Get Book

Book Description
The relationship of law to economic freedom has been a vital element in the history of all modern democratic societies. "Freedom of contract" is both a technical term in law, referring to private agreements and promises, and a metaphor often deployed to describe economic liberty. This volume of new essays by eminent legal historians offers fresh perspectives on freedom of contract in both senses of the term, and considers how economic freedom relates to such classic political freedoms as free speech and other Anglo-American constitutional norms. The principal focus of the essays is on broad issues of policy and law, rather than on narrow considerations of legal doctrine. All the contributors reject stereotypes that pervade the existing literature about the allegedly unalloyed individualism of the common law, and show how active state interventions of various kinds have shaped contract law in relation to social change throughout our legal history. Equally, however, they reject shibboleths regarding "bringing the state back in," and take a hard look at the claims of statist ideology regarding the norms and rules that have established the legal boundaries of liberty in the modern industrial and post-industrial eras. The topics covered are Blackstone's claim that property was the "despotic dominion of the private owner" (A. W. B. Simpson), labor and contract (John V. Orth), the influence of philosophical trends on legal innovations (James Gordley), contract and individualism (David Lieberman), the tradition of public rights (Harry N. Scheiber), the formal concept of "liberty of contract" in American law (Charles McCurdy), the interwoven history of labor law and contract law (Arthur McEvoy), public policy in relation to natural resources (Donald Pisani), and globalization of freedom of contract (Martin Shapiro).

Liberty of Contract

Liberty of Contract PDF Author: David N. Mayer
Publisher: Cato Institute
ISBN: 1935308408
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description
Examines the history of the liberty of contract and shows how this right has been continuously diminished by court decisions and by our country's growing regulatory and welfare state.

The Fall and Rise of Freedom of Contract

The Fall and Rise of Freedom of Contract PDF Author: F. H. Buckley
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822380129
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 479

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Book Description
Declared dead some twenty-five years ago, the idea of freedom of contract has enjoyed a remarkable intellectual revival. In The Fall and Rise of Freedom of Contract leading scholars in the fields of contract law and law-and-economics analyze the new interest in bargaining freedom. The 1970s was a decade of regulatory triumphalism in North America, marked by a surge in consumer, securities, and environmental regulation. Legal scholars predicted the “death of contract” and its replacement by regulation and reliance-based theories of liability. Instead, we have witnessed the reemergence of free bargaining norms. This revival can be attributed to the rise of law-and-economics, which laid bare the intellectual failure of anticontractarian theories. Scholars in this school note that consumers are not as helpless as they have been made out to be, and that intrusive legal rules meant ostensibly to help them often leave them worse off. Contract law principles have also been very robust in areas far afield from traditional contract law, and the essays in this volume consider how free bargaining rights might reasonably be extended in tort, property, land-use planning, bankruptcy, and divorce and family law. This book will be of particular interest to legal scholars and specialists in contract law. Economics and public policy planners will also be challenged by its novel arguments. Contributors. Gregory S. Alexander, Margaret F. Brinig, F. H. Buckley, Robert Cooter, Steven J. Eagle, Robert C. Ellickson, Richard A. Epstein, William A. Fischel, Michael Klausner, Bruce H. Kobayashi, Geoffrey P. Miller, Timothy J. Muris, Robert H. Nelson, Eric A. Posner, Robert K. Rasmussen, Larry E. Ribstein, Roberta Romano, Paul H. Rubin, Alan Schwartz, Elizabeth S. Scott, Robert E. Scott, Michael J. Trebilcock

The Rise and Fall of Freedom of Contract

The Rise and Fall of Freedom of Contract PDF Author: P. S. Atiyah
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Contracts
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The impact of freedom of contract in the 19th century extended far beyond the legal arena as an economic slogan and an ethical attitude. Atiyah traces the development and subsequent decline of the freedom of contract, depicting its effects on the law's development and the foundation of contractual obligations, as well as its broader implications for 19th century English life.

The Limits of Freedom of Contract

The Limits of Freedom of Contract PDF Author: Michael J. Trebilcock
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674979907
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Our legal system is committed to the idea that private markets and the law of contracts that supports them are the primary institutions for allocating goods and services in a modern economy. Yet the market paradigm, this book argues, leaves substantial room for challenge.

The Choice Theory of Contracts

The Choice Theory of Contracts PDF Author: Hanoch Dagan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107135982
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
The Choice Theory of Contracts is an engaging landmark that shows, for the first time, how freedom matters to contract.

Freedom of Contract

Freedom of Contract PDF Author: Samuel Williston
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description


Justice in Transactions

Justice in Transactions PDF Author: Peter Benson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674237595
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 625

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Book Description
Legal thinkers typically justify contract law on the basis of economics or promissory morality. But Peter Benson takes another approach. He argues that contract is best explained as a transfer of rights governed by a conception of justice. The result is a comprehensive theory of contract law congruent with Rawlsian liberalism.

The Rise and Fall of Freedom of Contract

The Rise and Fall of Freedom of Contract PDF Author: P. S. Atiyah
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 812

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Book Description


The State

The State PDF Author: Anthony De Jasay
Publisher: Collected Papers of Anthony de
ISBN: 9780865971714
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The State is a brilliant analysis of some of the fundamental issues of modern political thought from the perspective, not of individuals or subjects, but of the state itself. The author poses the query, "What would you do if you were the state?" The state usually is understood as an instrument, not a personality, and it is presumed to exist so that people can achieve their common ends. However, Jasay asks, what if we suppose the state to have a will and ends of its own? To answer these questions, the author traces the logical and historical progression of the state from a modest-sized protector of life and property through its development into an "agile seducer of democratic majorities, to the welfare-dispensing drudge that it is in many countries today ... Is the rational next step a totalitarian enhancement of its power?" The State presents what has been termed "a disturbingly logical 'agenda' for the state in pursuit of its 'self-fulfillment.'"--Inside jacket flap.