The Right to Contract as a Civil Right

Authors

Robin West, Georgetown University Law Center

First Page

551

Document Type

Article

Abstract

In the first section below, I delineate what I believe to be the still-dominant and quasi-constitutional conception of the right to contract, as it has been understood at least from the Lochner era to today. In the second section, I contrast the Lochnerian constitutional right to contract with the civil right to contract. In the third section, I show that the civil right to contract, unlike the constitutional one, is fully consistent with our modem civil rights laws and broadly understood. In the third section, I also explore the relationship between the civil right to contract and civil society, where I will suggest that rather than being in tension with it, the civil right to contract is one of the core, and perhaps the core architectural foundations of civil society. The conclusion briefly recapitulates the argument.

Recommended Citation

Robin West, The Right to Contract as a Civil Right, 26 St. Thomas L. Rev. 551 (2014).
Available at: https://scholarship.stu.edu/stlr/vol26/iss4/10