6533b826fe1ef96bd1283e16

RESEARCH PRODUCT

La justice contractuelle

subject

description

In the last century, reflections on contract law have been almost entirely dominated by classical contract theory and laissez-faire ideology, while open considerations of justice have played a marginal role. The rise of European contract law has gradually led to the abandonment of traditional arguments typical of national private laws, and has sparked a growing debate on justice. This trend does not always contribute to the quality of the debate, as it is often ideologically polarized between "right wing” arguments, pleading in favour of marketoriented polices, and "left wing” arguments in support of consumers’ rights, both proposing solutions inspired by so-called common sentiment. This is mainly due to the absence of any reference to a clearly outlined theoretical framework, and to the fact that the reflections of contemporary political philosophy are largely ignored in the current debate. An examination of the various contemporary conceptions of justice is the only possible route to identifying a European social model, on the basis of which to set rules for contracts, as well as to provide the legal discourse on European contract law with a solid, rationally viable theoretical framework. For this reason, this paper aims at expounding the distributive options proposed by the main schools of thought in political philosophy.