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5 - Contracts for Dignity

from II - What Legal Design Can Do

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2024

By
Robert de Rooy
Edited by
Miso Kim ,
Dan Jackson  and
Jules Rochielle Sievert
Miso Kim
Affiliation:
Northeastern University, Boston
Dan Jackson
Affiliation:
Northeastern University, Boston
Jules Rochielle Sievert
Affiliation:
Northeastern University, Boston
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Summary

This chapter advocates for dignity to be the purpose, the lodestar, of contracting. By considering contracts through the lens of dignity, lawyers and designers can help prevent injustice and the indignity of people’s encounters with contracts that are not designed to be understood. Designing contracts for dignity is about enhancing the capacity and capability of the weaker, subordinate, or vulnerable party to autonomously understand their rights and obligations. Autonomy is an essential element common to both contracts and dignity. By enhancing the autonomy of vulnerable parties, the dignity of those vulnerable people is better served, and the assumptions that underpin the law of contracting are validated.

Keywords

dignitycomic contractsvisual contractsdesignautomony
Type
Chapter
Information
Legal Design
Dignifying People in Legal Systems
 , pp. 74 - 89
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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