Michael Heller (Columbia University – Columbia Law School) & Hanoch Dagan (University of California, Berkeley – School of Law) have posted Liberal Contract Theory — Part 1 of Freedom of Contract on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Freedom of Contract addresses the big questions of contract theory, answers longstanding doctrinal debates in contract law, and points the way to justified reforms. The book justifies enforcement of contract law through its role in enhancing individual autonomy defined as self-determination.
Liberal Contract Theory — Part 1 of the book — is included here. It develops our normative and conceptual framework. Our work in this Part is to create the jurisprudential scaffolding needed to support the concrete doctrinal explanations and reform proposals that follow in Parts II and III. Chapter 2 situates law's commitment to autonomy in broader debates in political philosophy, distinguishes competing approaches, and shows how we justify contract enforcement. Chapter 3 identifies the three core principles that animate liberal contract law — "proactive facilitation," "regard for the future self," and "relational justice" — and wraps up by showing how our view on freedom of contract stands in sharp contrast to the prevailing laissez-faire definition.
Freedom of contract, correctly understood, is the right to pursue our voluntary joint plans — facilitated by autonomy-enhancing law that offers an adequate range of normatively attractive contract types; protects our future selves' ability to rewrite core life plans; and ensures relational justice, including a measure of substantive equality.
Highly recommended.