Privatautonomie und Kontrahierungszwang

Jan Busche describes the significance of the obligation to contract in modern private law. He theorizes that the real basis of individual self-determination, which is the economic and intellectual faculty of self-determination by the individual, has been disrupted in many ways. However the functional principle of private autonomy, which is recognized by the German legal system, demands that each individual be given the possibility of self-determination. This applies in particular to freedom of contract, which is the most important manifestation of private autonomy. Against this background, Jan Busche develops his concept of the general obligation to contract as a legal institution and as an integral part of the system of the law of contract.