CPLC Work in Progress/Guest Seminar: 'The Socialisation of Private Law'

Speaker: Professor Jason Varuhas, University of Melbourne

This paper analyses a major trend in private law: the socialisation of private law. ‘Socialisation’ denotes a refocusing of private law away from inter partes rights to public and third party interests, often at the expense of individual rights traditionally protected by private law. The paper (i) charts and analyses the trend of socialisation across a range of areas of private law, focusing on the intensification and acceleration of this multi-faceted process over the last 40 years; (ii) examines the causes of these changes; and (iii) offers some preliminary observations on the changes, considering their wider ramifications and the normative desirability of socialisation.

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