European Contract Law and the Welfare State

In the European Union, a debate is on-going about the Europeanisation of contract law. However, its impact on the different welfare states’ types, as they are developed in political science, has not been discussed elaborately. Nearly all Member States of the European Union can be characterised as a welfare state or may be post-welfare state. There are many definitions and descriptions of the welfare state. It is generally accepted that social citizenship is a common characteristic of the welfare states in the European Union; another one is that they are capitalist economies in a global economy in which a service industry prevails.

This book publishes the papers of a workshop held at the Free University of Amsterdam and which aimed to explore the potential of applying the political science theory of the welfare-state-types to contract law.