A "Near" Contract Experience
AbstractThe author uses the relationship between women and the law to illustrate the role of contract law as a mechanism of social control, focussing especially on the willingness - or rather, unwillingness - of the court to intervene in and enforce 'domestic,' as opposed to commercial agreements, in which women are often the weaker party, in relation to bargaining power. It is propounded that contractual rules and terminology may be manipulated so as to perpetuate and legitimate an unequal status quo. The concepts of the 'reasonable person' and 'freedom of contract' are criticised, and it is proposed that these concepts should be expanded to apply wider principles of fairness which will remedy basic inequalities of bargaining power. |