Lieberman finds little evidence of a transformative conceptual leap to new positive regimes of contractual freedom. Like Orth, Lieberman instead places the move to contract in the context of a more gradual and qualified process, the emergence of commercial society in England. 5 Scheiber's essay moves these themes across the Atlantic. 6 Essays by Charles McCurdy and Arthur McEvoy return us to Orth's emphasis on labor contracts, together demonstrating that it was here as nowhere else that freedom of contract gained its classic American expression. McEvoy's nicely complementary essay shows that labor law's conceptually universalized contract regime actually has concrete frontiers.
Freedom of contract dominates the labor market.
In the household, meanwhile, law has been historically reluctant to find contractual potential at all, instead presuming relations constituted by norms of hierarchy. Yet he adds, importantly, freedom of contract is conceptually unruly, no less an ideology of self-determination than a key to inequality. It has the potential to extend choice, not merely confine it. 7 Donald Pisani and Martin Shapiro complete the book on similar notes of novelty and uncertainty. Pisani addresses natural resources and economic liberty.