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Towards a Genealogy and Typology of Governance Through Contract Beyond Privity

Salminen, Jaakko LU (2020) In European Review of Contract Law 16(1). p.25-43
Abstract
Contracts are used to extend governance on supply chain and platform actors in ways that could not be envisaged when the foundations of current conceptualizations of contractual privity were laid down in the 19th century. This results in a stark contradiction. Firms use contracts to extend governance on actors beyond privity when it suits their interests, for example for reasons of supplychain-wide cost-management. At the same time, law offers few means of holding a firm liable for the inadequate governance of social, environmental, cultural, and economic sustainability in its supply chain or platform eco-system. I propose two tools for uncovering the multiple societal tensions that this disjuncture between law and contractual practice... (More)
Contracts are used to extend governance on supply chain and platform actors in ways that could not be envisaged when the foundations of current conceptualizations of contractual privity were laid down in the 19th century. This results in a stark contradiction. Firms use contracts to extend governance on actors beyond privity when it suits their interests, for example for reasons of supplychain-wide cost-management. At the same time, law offers few means of holding a firm liable for the inadequate governance of social, environmental, cultural, and economic sustainability in its supply chain or platform eco-system. I propose two tools for uncovering the multiple societal tensions that this disjuncture between law and contractual practice entails. The first is a genealogy of how contractual paradigms have contributed to the rise of new forms of production, such as centralized mass production in the 19th century, global value chains in the 20th century, and the platform economy in the 21st century. The second is a multidisciplinary typology of the contractual mechanisms used to extend governance beyond privity. My hope is that these two tools will help us better understand, research, teach, and balance the implications of contractual paradigms on the social, environmental, cultural, and economic sustainability of production. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Private law, Civilrätt
in
European Review of Contract Law
volume
16
issue
1
pages
25 - 43
publisher
De Gruyter
external identifiers
  • scopus:85129792510
ISSN
1614-9939
DOI
10.1515/ercl-2020-0003
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
ac5244bf-821a-43b7-bcd0-646826828359
date added to LUP
2022-05-30 22:43:01
date last changed
2023-07-27 04:05:06
@article{ac5244bf-821a-43b7-bcd0-646826828359,
  abstract     = {{Contracts are used to extend governance on supply chain and platform actors in ways that could not be envisaged when the foundations of current conceptualizations of contractual privity were laid down in the 19th century. This results in a stark contradiction. Firms use contracts to extend governance on actors beyond privity when it suits their interests, for example for reasons of supplychain-wide cost-management. At the same time, law offers few means of holding a firm liable for the inadequate governance of social, environmental, cultural, and economic sustainability in its supply chain or platform eco-system. I propose two tools for uncovering the multiple societal tensions that this disjuncture between law and contractual practice entails. The first is a genealogy of how contractual paradigms have contributed to the rise of new forms of production, such as centralized mass production in the 19th century, global value chains in the 20th century, and the platform economy in the 21st century. The second is a multidisciplinary typology of the contractual mechanisms used to extend governance beyond privity. My hope is that these two tools will help us better understand, research, teach, and balance the implications of contractual paradigms on the social, environmental, cultural, and economic sustainability of production.}},
  author       = {{Salminen, Jaakko}},
  issn         = {{1614-9939}},
  keywords     = {{Private law; Civilrätt}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{04}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{25--43}},
  publisher    = {{De Gruyter}},
  series       = {{European Review of Contract Law}},
  title        = {{Towards a Genealogy and Typology of Governance Through Contract Beyond Privity}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ercl-2020-0003}},
  doi          = {{10.1515/ercl-2020-0003}},
  volume       = {{16}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}