نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی
عنوان مقاله English
نویسنده English
The principle of freedom of contract, as one of the most foundational tenets of contract law, has traditionally been regarded as the manifestation of party autonomy in governing legal relationships. However, profound contemporary socio-economic transformations—most notably the rise of structural disparities in bargaining power and the widespread proliferation of adhesion contracts—have raised fundamental challenges regarding the adequacy of the classical interpretation of this doctrine. Employing a philosophical-analytical approach, this study seeks to reconsider the relationship between the principle of freedom of contract in private law and the concept of autonomy of the will in Immanuel Kant’s moral philosophy. The central inquiry is whether contractual consent, as construed within classical private law doctrine, genuinely represents an autonomous will, or merely reflects a formal facade of freedom in many instances. Within this framework, the paper first delineates the theoretical foundations and functions of freedom of contract in the traditional architecture of contract law; it then analyzes the Kantian conception of autonomy, emphasizing its intrinsic link to human dignity and the principle of humanity as an end in itself. Furthermore, by scrutinizing the tension between formal freedom of choice and rational autonomy of the will, it demonstrates that contractual consent procured under conditions of acute economic or informational asymmetry is not inherently compatible with Kantian autonomy. Accordingly, this article argues that reinterpreting freedom of contract through the lens of Kantian autonomy provides a normative foundation for a modern reading of legal doctrines such as duress (ikrāh), distress/necessity (iḍtirār), and lesion (ghabn), while offering a rational justification for legal constraints on unfair contracts. Ultimately, it concludes that freedom of contract, when situated within the horizon of the theory of autonomy, is not merely an instrument for validating agreements, but a vital legal mechanism for safeguarding human dignity and preserving the conditions of possibility for genuinely autonomous agency in contractual relations.
کلیدواژهها English
