Private Law Seminar Series: 'The Variety of Contractualisms in Private Law Theory'

Speaker: Dr Zhong Xing Tan (NUS)

Private law theory has long been viewed as a contest between corrective justice and economic analysis, prompting a search for
"third-way" approaches. This chapter examines one such alternative: the contractualism of Rawls and Scanlon, which grounds
what we owe each other in interpersonal justification — regulative principles that no one could reasonably reject. Yet the
contractual device is protean. Actual consent, rational bargaining, civil recourse, reciprocity theory, egalitarian instrumentalism,
Rawlsian political justice, the Palsgraf-ian perspective: each has been pressed into service in explicating and evaluating private
law. Each view contains certain grains of insight, yet often misses what others see, or appears to overreach. This chapter sorts the
insights from the errors by using the Scanlonian framework as a baseline to work out the core of contractualism and underscore
its potential for private law theory.

Note: Sandwiches served in G11 between 12.30pm and 1pm; seminar to commence in the G11 at 1pm.

This seminar is open to all LLM, MCL and PhD students, Faculty members and Faculty visitors.

The Cambridge Private Law Centre acknowledges with gratitude the generous financial support of
XXIV Old Buildings and of South Square.