Private Law Theory

There is an ongoing debate about whether contract law has any role to play in addressing economic inequality. The orthodox view is that tax law ought to play the central role in combatting inequality while other areas of law should focus on narrower concerns such as economic efficiency or equality in exchange.  On this view, contract law can at most be used to address imbalances of wealth or power between parties to specific transactions, but not to help parties who are disadvantaged relative to other members of the broader society. In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in heterodox approaches that allow bodies of law besides tax law to play a role in combatting inequality …

Kevin E Davis and Mariana Pargendler, Contract Law Heterodoxy, RED, volume 4, issue 1, January 2022, pp 78-82.