Monateri, Pier Giuseppe --- "Introduction" [2017] ELECD 601; in Monateri, Giuseppe Pier (ed), "Comparative Contract Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 1

Book Title: Comparative Contract Law

Editor(s): Monateri, Giuseppe Pier

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849804516

Section Title: Introduction

Author(s): Monateri, Pier Giuseppe

Number of pages: 4

Extract:

Introduction
Pier Giuseppe Monateri



Contract has never been more alive than nowadays and pervasively
dominates world transactions. Notwithstanding its enduring presence and
the complex apparatuses of technicians devoted to managing clauses and
interpretation, the inquiry on the proper nature of contract, on its status
and collocation within private legal taxonomies continues to be a
controversial exercise. This comprehensive book, which collects the
contribution of different scholars from different backgrounds, offers a
thoughtful survey of theories, issues, cases, in order to reassess the
present vision of contract law. The adjective `comparative', prominent in
the title, refers both to the specific kind of methodologies implied, and to
the polyphonic perspectives collected on the main topics, with the aim of
superseding the conventional forms of representation. In this perspective,
the work engages a critical search for the fault-lines, which cross
traditions of thought and globalized landscapes.
Moving from a vast array of dissimilar inclinations, which have
historically produced heterogeneous maps of law along with protean
representative aesthetics, the book is built around four main groups of
insights, including: the genealogies of contractual theoretical thinking;
the contentious relationship between private governance and normative
regulations; the competing styles used to stage contract law, and the
concurring opinions expressed within the domain of other disciplines,
such as literature and political theory; the tensions between global
context and local frames and the movable thresholds between canonical
expressions and heterodox constructions.
Part I (`Theories and Genealogies') deals with fundamental
epistemological issues and aims to dissect the underlying ...