The Social Contract Rediscovered: Consent’s Onto-Epistemological Integrity in the Late 20th Century

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Wenwei Guan (City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

The Social Contract Rediscovered

Consent’s Onto-Epistemological Integrity in the Late 20th Century

Wenwei Guan (City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)

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English

Routledge
30 June 2025

Series: Routledge Research in International Law

The Social Contract Rediscovered conducts a critical analysis of the historical evolution of legitimacy, tracing its development from natural law to positive law and finally to post-modern critiques. It fills a scholarly gap by addressing the overlooked aspect of the consent process.

The book begins with a recap of the historical development of social contract theory. It draws from a broad base of jurisprudential and social theories to think through how social contract’s rise and fall forms an integral part of legitimacy’s modernization process from the Enlightenment-driven Industrial Revolution’s global proliferation to the end of the 20th century. It then integrates discussion of consensus construction at three levels: private contract legitimacy, national development consensus, and global modern exchange mechanism in the late 20th century. Rather than ask how state legitimacy is constructed in social contract theory, the book asks what role an individual plays in the process of consensual legitimacy construction. This individual-oriented perspective calls for a jurisprudential construction of “process legitimacy” and consensual legitimacy’s onto-epistemological integrity.

Providing a new perspective on the social contract, this book will interest scholars of private law, international trade, and development law.

By: Wenwei Guan (City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781032827995
ISBN 10: 1032827998
Series: Routledge Research in International Law
Pages: 196
Publication Date: 30 June 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Wenwei Guan is Associate Professor of Law at City University of Hong Kong.