Justice in Transactions: A Public Basis for Justifying Contract Law?
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Martijn W. Hesselink
Abstract
This paper challenges Peter Benson’s claim that his theory of justice in transactions can provide a public basis of justification in the Rawlsian sense specifically worked out for contract law. It argues that Benson’s distinct conception of the contracting parties and their relationships makes it an unlikely candidate for public justification in contemporary liberal democracies that are characterized by the fact of a reasonable pluralism of worldviews. Moreover, Benson’s method of deriving principles of contractual justice from existing contract law doctrines and principles risks pre-empting any critical potential for normative contract theory. In addition, its quasi universalism seems difficult to match with the political autonomy of citizens in democratic societies. Finally, Benson’s understanding of contract law as separate from politics appears at odds, not merely with Rawlsian political justice, but with the very idea of public justification.
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial
- EU Legislation
- European Union Legislation and Actions
- Introduction
- Introduction
- Articles – on Justice in Transactions
- Fundamental Rights, Contract Law and Transactional Justice
- Contract Law Theory and The Concept of ‘Ownership’
- Justice in Contract, no Justice in the Background
- Autonomy in Transactions
- The Public of Contract, and of its Justification
- A Theory of Contract Law: What Meaning and for What Purpose?
- Markets and Contractual Fairness
- The Ambition of Public Justification in Contract
- Justice in Transactions: A Public Basis for Justifying Contract Law?
- Would Reasonable People Endorse a ‘Content-Neutral’ Law of Contract?
- Reply – Justice in Transactions
- The Arguments in Justice in Transactions: A Reply to Commentators
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Editorial
- EU Legislation
- European Union Legislation and Actions
- Introduction
- Introduction
- Articles – on Justice in Transactions
- Fundamental Rights, Contract Law and Transactional Justice
- Contract Law Theory and The Concept of ‘Ownership’
- Justice in Contract, no Justice in the Background
- Autonomy in Transactions
- The Public of Contract, and of its Justification
- A Theory of Contract Law: What Meaning and for What Purpose?
- Markets and Contractual Fairness
- The Ambition of Public Justification in Contract
- Justice in Transactions: A Public Basis for Justifying Contract Law?
- Would Reasonable People Endorse a ‘Content-Neutral’ Law of Contract?
- Reply – Justice in Transactions
- The Arguments in Justice in Transactions: A Reply to Commentators
