I Limiti all'Autonomia Contrattuale nel Pensiero Economico e Filosofico Moderno (The Limits of Freedom of Contract in Modern Economic and Philosophical Thought)

Abstract:     
This paper aims at discovering the situations where a limits of freedom of contract is justified in order to achieve efficiency or to give relevance to a theory of justice. In the work the category of market failure is used and with reference of every market failure potential limits to freedom of contract are derived. The paper, with regard to the economic aspect, accepts the two theorems of welfare economics and considerations about wealth distribution are not made. Instead for the philosophical part of the paper problems of welfare distributions are considered.

The conclusion is that law and economics and political philosophy scholars have done in these years a good job in analyzing the situation where freedom of contract does not increase collective welfare. The results are important because they help understand the logic of private law of Anglo-American systems and in part of continental legal system.

Keywords: freedom of contract, market failures, homo oeconomicus, social justice

JEL Classification: D62, K10, K12, l10, l51

Accepted Paper Series