Contains the plenary reports and a selection of working group reports from a seminar on critical contract law held near Helsinki in May 1992. The possibilities of socially-oriented perspectives of contract law in the next millennium are discussed.

This text contains the plenary reports and a selection of working group reports from a seminar on critical contract law held near Helsinki in May 1992. The purpose of the seminar was to bring together the ongoing discourses on the welfare state and its crisis, and on the alternative paradigms of contracts law with the discourse on international harmonization of contract law, especially in Europe and within the European Communities. The theory of contract is related to other social theories such as the theory of a risk society. The possibilities of socially oriented perspectives of contract law in the next millennium are discussed. The text contains articles written by scholars from England, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Finland, among others.

Part 1 Introduction: questions for a critical contract law - and a contradictory answer - contract as social co-operation, Thomas Wilhelmsson. Part 2 Contract law and European integration: protection of consumers' economic interests by the EC through contract law, Norbert Reich
Scandinavian contract law with the EC - a social dimension in contract law by harmonization or recognition, Palle Bo Madsen. Part 3 Contract law and social sciences: towards risk management in contract law?, Dieter Hart
thinking about the insurance society, Nick Huls
the Vikings and the Romans - contract law and social economy, Udo Reifner
piercing the contractual veil - social responsibility of contractual networks?, Gunther Teubner. Part 4 Towards a new contract theory: towards a rational law of contract, Roger Brownsword
liability between contract and tort, Carlo Castronovo
the transformation thesis and the ascription of contractual responsibility, Hugh Collins
contracts - just social practice, Juja Poyhonen. Part 5 Consumers and contract law: contract law: the challenge for the critical contract lawyer, Geraint Howells
consumer law in the year 1992 in Europe and the Netherlands: law for the consumer or law for the market, Roef Stutterheim
on feasibility of social-oriented concepts in contract law.