Oppressive-Exploitative Contracts
A Jewish Law Perspective
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20385453 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Shahar Lifshitz (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2008 |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 425-453 |
| Publication date | 2008-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Law and Religion (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0748-0814 • E-ISSN: 2163-3088 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0748081400002344 |
| OpenAlex | W2500329896 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 23 |
The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have wronged the poor and needy, and have oppressed the stranger unlawfully. ( Ezekiel 22:29) Ezekiel's lament emphasizes that oppression in general, and especially oppression of the needy and the distressed, is always an extremely immoral and illegal act. In the Bible, “oppression” describes the unilateral taking of another person's property or depriving her of her rights. Yet, sometimes even an apparently voluntary agreement might be oppressive. Preventing oppression, therefore, has became one of the declared aims of contractual doctrine, as in the well-known American doctrine of unconscionability. Unconscionability and oppression are broad concepts that describe a wide-ranging array of cases and situations. Not surprisingly, therefore, despite the formidable and complex body of legal writing on the unconscionability doctrine, a great deal of ambiguity remains as to its theoretical basis, as well as its practical content. In this article I seek to enrich the modern Western discussion by analyzing Jewish law doctrine which addresses the issue of oppressive exploitative contracts, an approach which is both unique and to date largely neglected by scholars in the area. This Jewish law doctrine developed in response to a specific kind of oppressive contract, in which a semi-monopolistic party exploits the distress of a needy party in order to demand an above-market price (hereinafter referred to as oppressive-exploitative contracts)
Doctrine · Law and economics · Oppression · Political science · Sociology · Unconscionability · European and International Contract Law · Law · Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems · Legal principles and applications
The authority of lawEssays on law and morality
Form and Substance in Private Law Adjudication
The authority of law
A Theory of Justice
Liberalism and the Limits of Justice
In Pursuit of the Counter-Text
Obligation
The Good Samaritan
The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies
The Possibility of Altruism
Exchange Revisited
| Citations per year | 0.11 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2008 - 2019 (12) |
| Highly cited | No |