Five political ideas of European contract law

This paper explores the possible implications of leading contemporary theories of political philosophy for some of the main questions that the political institutions of the European Union will have to decide on concerning the future of European contract law. Thus, it explores what a utilitarian, liberal-egalitarian, libertarian, communitarian, deliberative/citizenship idea of European contract law might look like. The primary aim of the paper is to demonstrate the relevance of social justice theories to some of the main issues concerning the future of European contract and, conversely, to indicate the relevance of (European) contract law to political philosophy. A second, more practical aim is to provide the stakeholders (including legal academics) and politicians that are currently called upon, by the European Commission's Green Paper, to submit their views on ‘policy options for progress towards a European Contract Law for consumers and businesses’ with an idea of what a position in terms of an articulate and comprehensive political theory might look like. An important question is whether it is possible and desirable to explain and justify one's concept of European contract law and its future exclusively in terms of one single of these five political ideas of European contract law. The tentative answer in this paper is that a pluralist or composite idea of European contract law is more attractive than a monist one.