Contract as Particular Law

A valid contract even has the status of a particular law among the contractors.[1] The contractors form a community ordered to a common end, the well-being and benefit of all involved in the contract. The members of the contractual community give their unanimous consent to the contract, and it thus has the legal character. For it is the will of the legislator, in this case the entire contractual community, solemnly expressed by means of the contractors formulation of the contract, it aims at the good of the entire contractual community over which it enjoins, and it is in accord with justice and reason insofar as it is a valid contract, for validity requires that it be in accordance with divine and natural law ad normam CLIF 12 §204, and if a statute does not violate these, it must needs be just. Therefore, since the contractors form a community, the whole people of such community has the right to make law for themselves, and this legislative right is properly exercised by means of contract, which thereby has the status of a particular law among the contractors.

(written circa April 2013)

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[1] Post inspired by Lon L. Fuller, Anatomy of the Law

Cf. CLIF 12 §2