Ralf Michaels

Privatrecht und (Un-)Gleichheit

Section: Abhandlungen und Diskussionsberichte
Volume 225 (2025) / Issue 4, pp. 535-610 (76)
Published 20.01.2026
DOI 10.1628/acp-2025-0020
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Summary

Private law is a law of freedom. It must still deal with equality and inequality - because
private law creates inequality, because freedom and equality belong together, because
private law structurally combines inequality and equality, and because the task of dealing
with inequality can no longer be reliably outsourced to public law. Private law has
instruments for preserving and creating equality. Contract law can reduce inequality
through collectivization. Tort law and the law of unjustified enrichment can replicate the
redistributive functions of social and tax law. Predistribution can become more equal
through property and inheritance law. In these ways, private law can also be a law of
equality.