Business networks consist of several independent businesses that enter into interrelated contracts, conferring on the parties many of the benefits of co-ordination achieved through vertical integration in a single firm, without creating a single integrated business such as a corporation or partnership. Retail franchises are one such example of a network, but the most common instance is a credit card transaction between a customer, retailer, and the issuer of the card. How should the law analyse this hybrid economic phenomenon? It is neither exactly a market relationship - because that overlooks the co-ordination, relational qualities and interdependence of the contracts - nor is it a type of business association or company, since it lacks a centralised co-ordinating authority that receives the residual profits. This book is a translation of Gunther Teubner's classic work on networks, setting out his novel legal concept of 'connected contracts'. In it he explains how this concept addresses the problems posed by networks, such as the question whether the network as a whole can be held legally responsible for damage that it causes to third parties such as customers. A substantial introduction by Hugh Collins explains the analysis of networks in the context of German law and the systems theory from which Teubner approaches the topic. The introduction also explores how far the concept of connected contracts might assist in the common law world, including the UK and the USA, to address the same problems that arise in cases involving networks. As well as making a contribution to comparative law and legal theory, the book will be of interest to scholars interested in contract law, commercial law and the law of business associations.

With the rise of automation and artificial intelligence, the companies that will succeed in the future are those who operate under a constant state of innovation. Not just that, they will often need to ensure that they pursue 'open innovation'. This book explores the contractual basis for innovation, examining the legal challenges raised by contracts to innovate. Offering a dual perspective, it takes an empirical approach to examine how agreements are structured to overcome the inherent uncertainty implicit in innovative activity. It also presents a legal framework for contracts to innovate, based on the duty of loyalty to the contractual network, which could provide guidance to navigate the uncertainty of these relationships.

Discusses the nature of corporate groups and networks, and provides arguments for rules extending liability beyond insolvent entities.

The book is a must read for anybody interested in the future development of European private law. European Private Law News This volume contains a valuable collection of essays by a group of reputable academics, each dealing with a particular aspect of the development of a substantive law of contract at European level. The contributors have a variety of interests and perspectives. The topic is clearly of great current interest throughout the European Union and beyond. Peter Stone, University of Essex, UK European Private Law after the Common Frame of Reference brings together several interesting contributions from a distinguished group of scholars, and sheds light on the important issue of legal harmonization from an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective. Francesco Parisi, University of Minnesota, US and University of Bologna, Italy The Common Frame of Reference has several potential functions, some reconcilable, others mutually exclusive. Its size, its shape, its true legal nature and its content all remain contested. Modest or ambitious, toolbox or code-in-waiting? Its chameleon character is its strength and simultaneously its weakness, and equally the reason why it has attracted such attention. In this book the editors have assembled a veritable who s who in the field and it is a terrific read. Stephen Weatherill, University of Oxford, UK This book paves the way for, and initiates, the second-generation of research in European private law subsequent to the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) needed for the 21st century. The book gives a voice to the growing dissatisfaction in academic discourse that the DCFR, as it stands in 2009, does not actually represent the condensed available knowledge on the possible future of European private law. The contributions in this book focus on the legitimacy of law making through academics both now and in the future, and on the possible conceptual choices which will affect the future of European private law. Drawing on experience gained from the DCFR the authors advocate the competition of ideas and concepts. This fascinating book will be a must-read for European lawyers, private lawyers in the Member States and academics dealing with conceptual issues of the future of the national and the European private law. Advanced students in both law and international business will also find this book invaluable, as will US scholars interested in the US EU comparison of different legal orders.

In the last 20 years interest in network phenomena has grown immensely among anthropologists, psychologists, political scientists, economists and lawyers. Empirical observation shows that network arrangements can be found in many branches of business. This is often linked to rapid changes in today's markets and technologies, but it is not the only reason. Legal institutions have been at the centre of private law since the industrial revolution but today contracts and corporations cannot cope with the risks and opportunities posed by networks. Legal practice needs solutions which go beyond the classical traditions of thinking in the dichotomy of contract and corporation. This volume is the outcome of a conference held in Fribourg, Switzerland, which focused on the legal treatment of contractual networks, in particular questions of network expectations, the fragility of network institutions, and the question of how law can minimise network specific risks towards third parties. The contributors, among them many of the world's leading scholars in this field, include Roger Brownsword, Simon Deakin, Gunther Teubner, Hugh Collins and Marc Amstutz. The book will be of interest to scholars of contract, corporate law, and legal theory.

Regulation of Risk provides comprehensive insight into regulation of risk in transport, trade and environment. Contributions provide national, regional and international perspectives on pressing questions: How is risk conceived in light of novel technological deployment, climate change, political upheaval, evolving geopolitics, and the COVID-19 pandemic? What legal tools such as contractual frameworks and governance structures are available to manage the changing landscape of risk? This book highlights the importance of dialogue and collaborative decision-making on risk between policymakers, institutions, societal stakeholders and the scientific community.

The last two decades have witnessed the growth of new forms of entrepreneurial cooperation such as dynamic networks like virtual enterprises and enterprise pools. These business forms are often hybrid, having elements of both contract-based organizations and corporate forms, in particular partnership. This book examines the relative utility of contract and partnership law in fostering and maintaining these emerging business models, focusing on dynamic networks. The book analyses how dynamic networks are organized and set up through, very often, collaborative contracts and how the behaviour of their member firms is regulated. Good faith and fair dealing as a behavioural criterion in contractual and partnership relations, is an important theme of this work. The background and preconditions for the emergence and growth of such business forms is also investigated. The book contains case studies of such networks from different countries in particular Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England and Norway. It examines relevant legal rules in a number of jurisdictions such as England, Norway, Germany, Italy, France and the US. This detailed book will appeal to postgraduate students and academics in the fields of contract law, comparative law, partnership law and business/commercial law. Academics in other disciplines such as economics, sociology and business management will also find much to interest them in this study.

Corporate Social Responsibility has for long been on the agenda in the business world and recently, it has also become a political agenda in the European Union. Focusing on international supply chains and their control based on studies of law in several European jurisdictions, this book aims to advance the discussion on the application and enforcement of CSR. Drawing parallels to US and Canadian law, the book explores to what extent private law tools can be used as an enforcement device and it ultimately asks if what we are witnessing is the formation of a new area of law, employing the interplay of contract and tort – a law of "production liability", as a corollary of the concept of "product liability".

Part I. The Role of Consent: 1. Transatlantic perspectives: fundamental themes and debates Larry A. DiMatteo, Qi Zhou and Séverine Saintier 2. Competing theories of contract: an emerging consensus? Martin A. Hogg 3. Contracts, courts and the construction of consent Tom W. Joo 4. Are mortgage contracts promises? Curtis Bridgeman Part II. Normative Views of Contract: 5. Naturalistic contract Peter A. Alces 6. Contract in a networked world Roger Brownsword 7. Contract, transactions, and equity T.T. Arvind Part III. Contract Design and Good Faith: 8. Reasonability in contract design Nancy S. Kim 9. Managing change in uncertain times: relational view of good faith Zoe Ollerenshaw Part IV. Implied Terms and Interpretation: 10. Implied terms in English contract law Richard Austen-Baker 11. Contract interpretation: judicial rule, not party choice Juliet Kostritsky Part V. Policing Contracting Behavior: 12. The paradox of the French method of calculating the compensation of commercial agents and the importance of conceptualising the remedial scheme under Directive 86/653 Séverine Saintier 13. Unconscionability in American contract law Chuck Knapp 14. Unfair terms in comparative perspective: software contracts Jean Braucher 15. (D)CFR initiative and consumer unfair terms Mel Kenny Part VI. Misrepresentation, Breach and Remedies: 16. Remedies for misrepresentation: an integrated system David Capper 17. Re-examining damages for fraudulent misrepresentation James Devenney 18. Remedies for documentary breaches: English law and the CISG Djakhongir Saidov Part VII. Harmonizing Contract Law: 19. Harmonisation European contract law: default and mandatory rules Qi Zhou 20. Harmonization and its discontents: a critique of the transaction cost argument for a European contract law David Campbell and Roger Halson 21. Europeanisation of contract law and the proposed common European sales law Hector MacQueen 22. Harmonization of international sales law Larry A. DiMatteo.

The Future of the Law of Contract brings together an impressive collection of essays on contract law. Taking a comparative approach, the aim of the book is to address how the law of contract will develop over the next 25 years, as well as considering the ways in which changes to the way that contracts are made will affect the law. Topics include good faith; objectivity; exclusion clauses; economic duress; variation of contract; contract and privacy law in a digital environment; technological change; Choice of Court Agreements; and Islamic finance contracts. The chapters are written by leading academics from England, Australia, Canada, the United States, Singapore and Malaysia. As such, this collection will be of global interest and importance to professionals, academics and students of contract law.