Category Archives: Transformative Private Law
‘How Can Contracts Contribute to Human Rights Protection in Global Value Chains?’
Contracts are the central building blocks for many developments in the transnational sphere such as the global value chains (GVCs) where they become vehicles for distribution, participation, and equality, a role more far-reaching than a mere buyer-supplier relationship (Eller, 1408, 1410). In this regard, the European Union’s (EU) recent Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) […]
‘Is the Right of Ownership at Odds with the Circular Economy?’
The circular economy is one in which biological and industrial materials are kept in circulation via recycling, reuse, refurbishment, composting, etc. This means that producers have to change the design of their products and make them modular to enable repair, refurbishment, upcycling, or simply extraction of valuable materials they contain to give them new life. […]
‘Three Models of Transformative Law’
In a previous post on the Transformative Private Law Blog, Martijn Hesselink calls ‘the idea of transformative private law a little scary’. The intuitive reason for Hesselink to be scared seems to be one of instrumentalization. Does the adoption of the term ‘transformative law’ imply a transformation of (private) law into a mere tool for […]
‘Positive Sustainable Obligations in Property Law’
When it comes to living within our planetary boundaries, land use is incredibly important. Not only do industry and agriculture significantly contribute to climate change, also construction of homes and the way in which these homes are used have negative effects on our climate. Our legal system plays an important role in our transition to […]
Marija Bartl, ‘Toward Transformative Private Law: Research Strategies’
ABSTRACT In this paper, I propose a way to study private law for change by showing a variety of legal alternatives to the neoliberal dogmas – through history, comparative research and the ‘diverse economies’ frameworks. Using these three scholarly approaches can help decentre the overwhelming necessity of neoliberal capitalism in private law thinking and renew […]
‘Personalised standard terms? Or, the transformations we didn’t know we didn’t really need’
Algorithm-enabled ‘personalisation’ is a hot topic in legal scholarship. In recent times, ‘personalised law’ has been the subject of books (like this and this), a conference culminating in a high-level online symposium and numerous events. As someone who stays largely out of digitalisation debates, I was impressed to discover the debate that has already flourished […]
Martijn Hesselink, ‘The idea of transformative private law: some critical observations’
The transformation of the centre The recent transformation of the centre has been truly impressive. It was an excellent idea to widen horizons and pursue new themes. Moreover, the new mission statement is strong, ambitious and full of exciting ideas. Most visible is of course the name change. A striking innovation is the choice for […]
Marija Bartl, ‘The Idea of Transformative Private Law’
During the recent Launch event of the Amsterdam Center for Transformative Private Law, we discussed the concept of Transformative Private Law. In what follows, I present the concept both as an analytical/critical project as well as a forward looking agenda. From the Center for the Study of European Contract Law (CSECL) to the Amsterdam Center […]
Chantal Mak, ‘Reflections on Transformative Private Law’
What is the meaning of ‘transformative private law’? Or what does membership of a research group that has chosen this name entail? Here are some reflections of a member of the newly launched Amsterdam Centre for Transformative Private Law (ACT), formerly known as the Centre for the Study of European Contract Law (CSECL). Following up […]
Jacobien W Rutgers, ‘Transformative Law in a Digital World from a Contract Law Perspective’
On Valentine’s day, the Amsterdam Centre for Transformative Law (Act) was launched at the Universiteit van Amsterdam. According to its Mission Statement, it focuses on ‘the role of private law in the making of society, as well as the processes of private law-making in a pluriform world’. By linking the concept of transformative law explicitly […]