The Dynamics of Private Law and Power

This paper provides a thematic analysis of the various contributions to an edited collection of essays, Private Law and Power, the purpose of which is to unpick the complex relationship between private law doctrines and power in its individual, institutional and state manifestations. Although private law has always operated to target and redress imbalances in power, the intensity of the dynamic has intensified greatly in recent times, with a much increased regulatory role for the state, a dramatic rise in the power of the multinational corporation, significant institutional abuses of relationships of trust in respect of vulnerable individuals (including children), the marketization of the civil litigation process and changes to systems of consumer protection. Private law, this chapter suggests, remains both a key source of power and an increasingly important mechanism for containing it