From Promise to Contract: Towards a Liberal Theory of Contract

(Hardback)

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Description

It is typical for theories of contract law to either analyze their subject matter as a mechanism for the enforcement of promises, or to deny the very notion that contract law can be explained as grounded in any unique set of normative principles or sources of moral or legal liability. Liberal theory of contract is traditionally associated with the first of these approaches. This book bucks both these trends by offering a theory of contract law based on a careful philosophical analysis of not only the similarities, but also the much-overlooked differences between contract and promise. Through an examination of a variety of issues pertaining to the nature of promissory and contractual relations and the nature of the institutions that support them, the book presents an intriguing thesis concerning the relations between contract and promise and, consequently, concerning the distinct functions and values which underlie contract law and explain contractual obligation.

Reviews

can one plausibly accept the voluntary view of contracts while rejecting their distinct promissory nature This is precisely the position that Dori Kimel advocates in his recent, highly original and insightful book. -- Hanoch Sheinman * Oxford Journal of Legal Studies *
Kimel's excellent book tells us much about the value of our practice of contracting, and how the benefits we receive from such a practice are not always identical to the benefits we receive from our practice of promising. He also helps us to understand how those values square with the values typically associated with perfectionist liberalism, and to that extent he makes great strides towards a liberal theory of contract. -- Curtis Bridgeman * Modern Law Review *
... the book gives us a richer sense of what Razs tersely stated views on contract might or might not amount to. In sympathetically examining those views, and in opening up a dialogue around and about them, the author makes a useful contribution. -- N. E. Simmonds * Cambridge Law Journal *

Author Bio

Dori Kimel is a Fellow of New College Oxford.