Stefan Bechtold analyzes examples from contract law, consumer protection law as well as corporate and securities law in which mandatory contract law has failed as a regulatory instrument.

Legislators are increasingly restricting the contractual freedom of the contracting parties. Stefan Bechtold analyzes examples from contract law, consumer protection law as well as corporate and securities law in which mandatory contract law has failed as a regulatory instrument. He relies extensively on insights from standard and behavioral law and economics, and develops a functional theory of lawmaking which assesses the advantages and disadvantages of different regulatory instruments in civil law. In addition, the author analyzes the extent to which economic and behavioral insights can be integrated into legal research. Thus the book not only deals with the limits of mandatory contract law, but also with the limits of social science research methods.

Autorentext
Geboren 1974; Studium der Rechtswissenschaft in Tübingen und Stanford; 2001 Promotion; 2005-2008 Mitarbeiter am Max-Planck-Institut zur Erforschung von Gemeinschaftsgütern in Bonn; 2009 Habilitation; Professor für Immaterialgüterrecht an der ETH Zürich.