1st Edition
From Dissonance to Sense Welfare State Expectations, Privatisation and Private Law
First published in 1999, this book focuses on the new role of private law in late modernity. It analyses the pressures for changes in this area of law due to the present processes of privatisation and marketisation. The perspective is welfarist: in what ways and to what extent can the welfare state expectations of the citizens be defended through private law mechanisms when state-offered security is diminishing? Which alternatives are available when developing private law? The questions are discussed against the background of theories concerning important features of late modern society, for example consumerism, risk, information, globalisation and fragmentation. Several fields of private law are analysed, such as private law theory, tort and liability law, contract law and credit law as well as access to justice issues. The approach is comparative, including analyses of both common law and continental law.
Part 1. Introduction. 1. Welfare State Expectations, Privatisation and Private Law. Thomas Wilhelmsson. Part 2. Privatisation, Society and Law. 2. Post-Modern Law? Kaarlo Tuori. 3. After Privatisation? – the Many Autonomies of Private Law. Gunther Teubner. 4. Normative Patterns and the Normative Field: A Post-Liberal View on Law. Anna Christensen. 5. The Legal Profession in a Changing World. Jørgen Dalberg-Larsen. Part 3. Privatisation and Private Law Theory. 6. The Lost Penny – Social Contract Law and Market Economy. Udo Reifner. 7. The Crises of Private Law. William N. R. Lucy. Part 4. Privatisation and Liability. 8. Private Law 2000: Small Stories on Morality through Liability. Thomas Wilhelmsson. 9. Private Law and Public Interests. John Wightman. 10. Can We, and Should We, Use Private Law as a Means of Regaining Governmental Provision of Services and Care for Citizens? Barbara Ann Hocking. 11. Liability for Information in Private Law. Juha Häyhä. Part 5. Privatisation and Contract. 12. Contract in the New Public Sector. Chris Willett. 13. Dissonance in Freedom of Contract? – How to Make Sense of It. Frey Nybergh. 14. Contract Law, Discrimination and European Integration. Dagmar Schiek. Part 6. Privatisation and Credit. 15. Whose Responsibility to Plan for Future Changes in Circumstances – Debtor, Creditor or the State? Geraint G. Howells. 16. Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in the Declining Welfare State. Iain Ramsay. Part 7. Privatisation and Environment. 17. Damage, Uncertainty, and Risk: Trends in Environmental Liability. Jenny Steele. Part 8. Privatisation and Access to Justice. 18. Privatisation of Access to Justice and Soft Law – Lessons from the European Community? Hans-W. Micklitz. 19. The Crisis of the Welfare State, Privatisation and Consumers’ Access to Justice. Klaus Viitanen. 20. Social Rights and the Courts. José Reinaldo de Lima Lopes. Part 9. Epilogue. 21. From Dissonance to Sense: Categories of Private and Public. Samuli Hurri.
Biography
Thomas Wilhelmsson, Samuli Hurri
’...a spur to scholars of law and politics to refocus their gaze...this book could be read as a call to look for the politics of social justice and solidarity beyond public law.’ Law and Politics Book Review
