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Contract, Freedom of

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Encyclopedia of Law and Economics

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Abstract

Freedom of contract is a principle of law, expressing three related ideas: parties should be free to choose their contracting partners (“party freedom”), to agree freely on the terms of their agreement (“term freedom”), and where agreements have been freely made, parties should be held to their bargains (“sanctity of contract”). This entry provides an overview of the economic justifications and limitations of this principle.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hull, Hull, UK

    Péter Cserne

Authors
  1. Péter Cserne
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Péter Cserne .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. MRE and University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  2. Faculté d’Economie, Université de Montpellier and LAMETA-UMR CNRS, Montpellier, France

    Alain Marciano

  3. DiGSPES, University of Eastern Piedmont, Alessandria, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

  4. IEL, Torino, Italy

    Giovanni Battista Ramello

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Cserne, P. (2019). Contract, Freedom of. In: Marciano, A., Ramello, G.B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Law and Economics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7753-2_538

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