Social freedom and private law

Research Project

In recent years, a ‘social’ conception of freedom has emerged in the field of social philosophy that calls into question the conventional distinction between ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ freedom. It is based on the premise that essential aspects of the participation in certain forms of social interaction, which we today regard as integral to leading a ‘good life’ via the realisation of individual freedom, cannot be sufficiently grasped if freedom is reduced to a legally protected sphere of personal decisions and the ability to produce autonomous or authentic aims. In particular, we lose sight of the fact that individuals within a social context can only express and realise themselves in a completely unconstrained way if their intersubjective desires are met with accommodating attitudes and ambitions by their peers. Only where the intentions and actions of the participants in a social practice interlock in such a way that their realisation becomes mutually dependent does the social practice become the medium or carrier of a ‘social’ form of freedom.
 
The idea of conceiving the ‘market economy’ as a sphere of social freedom – or transforming it into such a sphere – should shed new light on a regulatory framework of private law that, according to traditional understanding, primarily serves to safeguard the ‘private autonomy’ of the individual market participant and thus appears to be firmly rooted in traditional individualistic notions of freedom. My research project sets out to approach the resulting questions from a legal perspective.