ABSTRACT
Relational contract theory is central to our understanding of contract law. One of the principal innovations in contracts scholarship in the twentieth century, relational contract theory has developed diverse approaches in the literature of law, business, sociology, and other academic fields and in the courts. Robert Scott’s observation in 2000 is even more true today: ‘We are all relationalists now’.
The development and application of relational contract theory by scholars across the disciplines and its penetration into the law itself have been valuable. In the process of adoption and adaptation, however, something important has been lost. Relational contract at its core challenges mainstream law and is not easily accommodated to it.
This article recaptures the critical potential of relational contract theory. It returns to the core propositions of the theory and demonstrates their power in enlightening current issues in contract law and scholarship. Relational contract undermines the structure of contract law and its status as an independent legal subject. It challenges basic tenets of the ‘New Private Law’, which is a major theme in recent scholarship. It contests contract law’s claim of determinacy and objectivity and focuses on the role of power and inequality in contracting and contract law.
Feinman, Jay M, Recapturing Relational Contract Theory (December 13, 2024).
Feinman’s Recapturing Relational Contract Theory offers a timely and incisive reaffirmation of the critical foundations of relational contract theory, reminding us that its true significance lies in its capacity to question rather than conform to dominant legal paradigms. By revisiting the core propositions that originally distinguished relational theory from traditional contract doctrine, Feinman highlights how its integration into mainstream legal discourse has often diluted its transformative potential. The article effectively challenges the formalism and supposed neutrality of the ‘New Private Law’, emphasizing instead the pervasive roles of power dynamics and social context in contractual relationships. This piece is a crucial contribution to the ongoing discourse and a compelling call to re-engage with relationalism not as a supplement to existing doctrine, but as a fundamentally different lens for understanding contract law.