Publisher's Synopsis
The chapters in this volume reflect the increasing currency of contract as a central concept in both academic debate and mainstream government policy in Britain in the 1990s. Based on papers presented in the well-received 'Contract and Economic Organisation? stream held at the Socio-legal Studies Annual Conference in Nottingham in 1994, the book explores two related themes. Part 1 focuses on the development of socio-legal theory on contract, with particular regard to the decline of the classical law and the increasing importance of co-operation and relationality in recent doctrinal thinking. Part 2 contains a number of empirical socio-legal studies of 'contractual' relations in the NHS and local government, reflecting the movement from hierarchical to market and quasi-market forms of economic organisation in the public sector. Theoretical and empirical aspects of contract are integrated throughout, with many of the chapters drawing on non-legal disciplines, especially economics. The contributions span a wide range of current contract scholarship, involving key commentators and researches active in the field of socio-legal studies today.
