Theologians and Contract Law

The Moral Transformation of the Ius Commune (Ca. 1500-1650)
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-90-04-23284-6
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 9/4, 724 Seiten, Format (B × H): 159 mm x 241 mm, Gewicht: 1269 g

Reihe: Legal History Library / Studies in the History of Private Law

The Roman legal tradition is the ancestor of modern contract law but there is no agreement as to how and when a general law of contract emerged. Wim Decock’s thesis is that an important step in this evolution was taken by theologians in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They transformed the Roman legal tradition (ius commune) by insisting on the moral foundations of contract law. Theologians emphasized that the enforceability of contracts is based on voluntary consent and that a contract should not enrich one party at another's expense. While their main concern was the salvation of souls, theologians played a key role in the development of a systematic contract law in which the founding principles were freedom and fairness.

Zielgruppe

All interested in the history of law, moral theology, economic thought, and also those reflecting on the relationship between freedom and justice, Church and State, market morality and capitalism.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Decock, Wim

Fachgebiete

• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtstheorie, Rechtsmethodik, Rechtsdogmatik, Rechtsprechungslehre
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtsphilosophie, Rechtsethik
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtsgeschichte, Recht der Antike
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Rechtsphilosophie, Rechtsethik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgment
Prologue
Notes on the Text and its Modes of Reference

1 Method and Direction
2 Theologians and Contract Law: Contextual Elements
3 Toward a General Law of Contract
4 Natural Limitations on 'Freedom of Contract'
5 Formal Limitations on 'Freedom of Contract'
6 Substantive Limitations on 'Freedom of Contract'
7 Fairness in Exchange
8 Theologians and Contract Law: Common Themes

Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Decock, Wim
Wim Decock (1983), PhD in Law (2011), Roma III and KULeuven, is a Senior Researcher at the Max-Planck-Institute for Legal History (Frankfurt). He was awarded a Marie Curie EST Fellowship and a Fellowship of the Flemish Research Foundation.

Wim Decock (1983), Ph.D. in Law (2011), KU Leuven and Roma Tre, is assistant professor at the Faculty of Law, at KU Leuven and affiliated researcher at the Max-Planck-Institute for Legal History in Frankfurt/Main (LOEWE Research Focus Judicial and Extrajudicial Conflict Resolution).