New Private Law Theory
A Pluralist Approach

New Private Law Theory is pluralist, comparative, application-oriented, transnational and reflects critical approaches.

Stefan Grundmann (Author), Hans-W. Micklitz (Author), Moritz Renner (Author)

9781108707763, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 November 2022

551 pages
24.4 x 17 x 2.8 cm, 0.87 kg

'New Private Law Theory is an astonishingly wide-ranging and perceptive book, which applies a vast array of methods - from Guido Calabresi's economics through Niklas Luhman's social theory to Michel Foucault's philosophy - to an equally broad set of concrete legal cases - from products liability through loan contracts to sports arbitration. Throughout, the book simply brims with insights and ideas. It will open the eyes of law students and reinvigorate the thinking of established scholars.' Daniel Markovits, Guido Calabresi Professor of Law, Yale Law School

New Private Law Theory opens a new pathway to private law theory through a pluralistic approach. Such a theory needs a broad and stable foundation, which the authors have built here through a canon of nearly seventy texts of reference. This book brings these different texts from different disciplines into conversation with each other, grouping them around central questions of private law and at the same time integrating them with the legal doctrinal analysis of example cases. This book will be accessible to both experienced and early career scholars working on private law.

New private law theory – the core ideas
Part I . Methods and Disciplines: 1. The inside and the outside of law?
2. Private law and sociology
3. Economics and private law institutions
4. Private law and theories of communication
5. Comparative law and legal history
Part II. Social Ordering, Constitutionalism and Private Law: 6. Societal order and private law
7. Values in private law
8. Constitutionalisation, regulation and private law
9. Democracy and private law
10. Formalism, substantive and procedural justice
Part III. Transactions and Risk – Private Law and the Market: 11. Negotiation, the function of contract and the 'justice of consensus'
12. Knowledge and information
13: private power
14. Non-discrimination
15. Risk, tort and liability
16. Digital architecture of private law relations
17. Between market and hierarchy
Part IV. Persons and Organizations: 18. Person, civil status and private law
19. Theory of the corporation
20. Actors in organizations
21. The principal's decision: exit, voice, and loyalty
22. Organizations and public goods
Part V. Private Law (rule setting) Beyond the State: 23. Law as a product
24. Multi-level governance and economic constitution
25. Transnational law
26. Private ordering
27. The shadow of the law and social embeddedness.

Subject Areas: Private / Civil law: general works [LNB], Legal system: law of contempt [LNAA2], Private international law & conflict of laws [LBG], Comparative law [LAM], Sociology & anthropology [JH]