Table of Contents

1. The Idea of Political Liberalism
I. The Liberal Hypothesis
II. Majoritarian Government
III. Democratic Legitimacy
IV. The Trouble with Majoritarianism
V. Reasonable Pluralism
VI. Freestanding Principles
VII. Politics and Justice
VIII. Political Liberalism
IX. Pluralism within Liberalism
2. Kant and the Will Theory
I. Why Kant?
II. Kant’s Moral System
III. Moral Value in the Groundwork
IV. The Nature of Recht
V. The Rightful Condition
VI. Private Right
VII. The Will Theory
VIII. Norm and Exception
3. The Rise of Classical Private Law
I. From Theory to Ideology
II. Reception of the Will Theory
III. Rise and Decline of Iurisprudentia
IV. Modern Legal Science
V. The Savignian System (i): Substance
VI. The Savignian System (ii): Method
VII. The Triumph of Formalism
VIII. Classical Private Law
4. The Socialisation of Private Law
I. The Social Question
II. The Social Jurists
III. The Emergence of Social Law
IV. The Social in Private Law
V. The Critique of Formalism
VI. Teleological Jurisprudence
VII. Culpa in Contrahendo
VIII. Abuse of Rights
5. The Politicisation of Private Law
I. On ‘Legal Realism’
II. The Collapse of Private/Public
III. Confl icting Considerations
IV. Rules and Principles
V. The Indeterminacy of Doctrine
VI. The Indeterminacy of Rules
VII. The Indeterminacy of Grounds
VIII. Ideology in Private Law

Promotional Information

A landmark work of jurisprudence, private law theory and history, tracing the decline of liberal private law and the triumph of constitutionalism in Western civilisation, and the death of reason in the face of plurality.

About the Author

Gonçalo de Almeida Ribeiro is Professor of Law at Universidade Católica Portuguesa and Judge of the Constitutional Court of Portugal.