Regulating Boilerplate

This book analyses what elements of legal regulation would best resolve the longstanding issues of imposition and unfair terms in the boilerplate of standard form contracts. These longstanding problems - recognised already by Sir Frederick Pollock in the 1860s - still persist, without a satisfactory solution having been found. Focused on solutions, the book takes an innovative approach, drawing on insights from regulatory theory, to offer innovative solutions.The book adopts a ‘law in context’ approach to analysing the law of contract in this economic, sociological and historical context. Beyond the substantive question of what to do about unfair contract terms, the book addresses deeper issues that have plagued existing regulatory responses, including access to justice, enforcement burdens, market contamination, and asymmetric costs and benefits to measures of private redress.The book has a global perspective, reflecting on regimes in the UK, EU, US, Canada, Australia and elsewhere. As increasingly much of people's activies are governed by the boilerplate of standard form contracts, the possibilities opened up in this book are urgently needed.