This article was first published on Lovin Malta on 13th May
2020.
Apart from the social contract guiding our state-citizen
relationship, we have the many private and commercial contracts
among ourselves.
The modern concept of the social contract we often speak about
seems to have emerged strongly in the period leading up to the
French revolution, which also brought about new ideals in statehood
and democracy.
In the same era, we also saw a major shift in the ethical and
social underpinnings of the civil law, specifically through the
Napoleonic Civil Code revision which found its way into Malta years
later.
Most contracts are the result of a negotiation and each party
promotes and defends its own interests. In raw economic terms,
there is no duty by one party to worry about the rights and
interests of the other party. Each party protects itself but then
must respect its obligations once an agreement is reached.
