Networks

Legal Issues of Multilateral Co-operation

Marc Amstutz, Gunther Teubner, Marc Amstutz, Gunther Teubner

• Publisher: Hart Publishing
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781841139456
• eBook ISBN: 9781847315069
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Contract Law
• Index: Law

In the last 20 years interest in network phenomena has grown immensely among anthropologists, psychologists, political scientists, economists and lawyers. Empirical observation shows that network arrangements can be found in many branches of business. This is often linked to rapid changes in today's markets and technologies, but it is not the only reason. Legal institutions have been at the centre of private law since the industrial revolution but today contracts and corporations cannot cope with the risks and opportunities posed by networks. Legal practice needs solutions which go beyond the classical traditions of thinking in the dichotomy of contract and corporation. This volume is the outcome of a conference held in Fribourg, Switzerland, which focused on the legal treatment of contractual networks, in particular questions of network expectations, the fragility of network institutions, and the question of how law can minimise network specific risks towards third parties. The contributors, among them many of the world's leading scholars in this field, include Roger Brownsword, Simon Deakin, Gunther Teubner, Hugh Collins and Marc Amstutz. The book will be of interest to scholars of contract, corporate law, and legal theory.

Table of contents

• Prelims
• Preface
• Contents
• Part I. The Emergence of Networks in the Law
• 1 Coincidentia Oppositorum: Hybrid Networks Beyond Contract and Organisation
• 2 Network Contracts Revisited
• 3 The Return of the Guild? Network Relations in Historical Perspective
• 4 Post-Hegelian Networks
• 5 The Path to the Law—The Difficult Legal Access of Networks
• Part II. Internal Network Relations: Generalised Reciprocity
• 6 The Status of Multilateral Synallagmas in the Law of Connected Contracts
• 7 Third Party Effects of Bilateral Contracts within the Network
• 8 Internal Relations and Semi-spontaneous Order: The Case of Franchising and Construction Contracts
• 9 Asset-sharing in Franchise Networks: The Obligation to pass on Network Benefits
• Part III. External Network Relations: State Regulation and Self-Regulation
• 10 The Weakest Link: Legal Implications of the Network Architecture of Supply Chains
• 11 The Weakest Link: Legal Aspects of Network Architecture of Supply Chains
• 12 The Protection of Contractual Networks Against Interference by Third Parties
• 13 Fitness Clubs: Consumer Protection between Contract and Association
• 14 Regulation of Hybrid Networks at the Intersection between Governmental Administration and Economic Self-Organisation*
• 15 Mixed Public-Private Networks as Vehicles for Regulatory Policy
• 16 The Constitution of Contractual Networks
• Index