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  • Where the Action Is: Macro and Micro Justice in Contract Law

Where the Action Is: Macro and Micro Justice in Contract Law

Year of Publication: 2020
Month of Publication: 7
Author(s): Tan Zhong Xing
Research Area(s): Contract Law
Journal Name: Modern Law Review
Volume Number: 83
Issue Number: 4
Abstract:

In contemporary private law theory the relationship between ‘macro’ theories of distributive justice and the ‘micro’ site of interpersonal transactions remains under‐explored. In this paper, I draw on the ‘macro’ theory of justice articulated by John Rawls and offer an account of ‘micro contractual justice’ that helps us understand how the micro domains of contracting introduce particular relational constraints on the infusion of distributive considerations into contract law, resulting in constrained conception of ‘relational Rawlsianism’ operating in contractual domains. My framework provides a bridge between the macro and micro, helping us understand how they are in various senses separate yet interlocking, and also provides a ‘third way’ between all or nothing positions on the place of distributive justice in contract.