A Civilian Perspective on Network Contracts and Privity

© 2017 George Washington University. All rights reserved. In order to contribute to the debate on the “edges of contract law,” especially on the value of the privity rule in an age of network contracts and sharing economy, this Essay analyzes some approaches and solutions chosen by continental or civil law systems of private law. It mainly deals with the effects of chains of (in principle bilateral) contracts and more specifically the effect in one relationship of the fact that a contracting partner also has a contract with a third party. First, this Essay studies the effects in a first contractual relationship, of other contracts concluded by one of the parties in the first one (internal liability). Second, it discusses some ways in which persons may acquire rights or be burdened by duties from a contract to which they were not a party, and privity is thus “extended” (paying attention inter alia to assignment, contracts for the benefit of a third party, and so-called “direct actions”). Finally, it touches upon some aspects of tort law specifically relevant to chains or networks of contracts.status: publishe