Autonomía privada. Perspectiva del derecho contemporáneo

This book reflects the research work of a group of Colombian and Italian professors who talk about private autonomy. Principle in whose values the creative wealth of multiple relationships in the private sphere is rooted.

The influence of private autonomy reveals the existence of an ever-growing and transformative power of individuals, particularly embodied in contracts, which strengthens the intricate system of sources of law in a globalized world with the power to cross national borders through the circulation of contractual models, negotiating standards, framework codes of principles and rules freely adopted by private parties. Which shows the fallacy of the strictly technical nature of law and, in turn, highlights, on the other hand, its political nature as an entirely human creation.

Thus, autonomy, through contracts, expands its force outside the exclusively private sphere, since public and private interests come together in these, as the contract is a scenario for the realization of fundamental rights, with the potential to become an instrument of promotion of economic and social development, which by its nature must be conceived as an instrument of cooperation and not power. Hence, this book highlights that although the contract reflects an economic operation that underlies the agreement itself, the cooperative nature of the relationship forces us to observe that said economic operation does not exhaust the content of the contract, since it has a social function that requires respect for the values contained in the principles that govern the legal system.

This book highlights that the contract also becomes an instrument of social organization, which goes beyond the function of immediate and personal exchange, and becomes a mechanism to establish durable and stable structures aimed at obtaining common interests, in which cooperation and organizational function become substantial. All of which leads to a necessary reinterpretation of the role of contractual autonomy and to give special attention to the new challenges and dangers in terms of legitimacy, efficiency and justice, that arise with the contemporary contract, which implies recognizing that private autonomy in general and, in particular, its numerous applications are subject to limits that are expressed within the framework of the principle of human dignity, in the prevalence of the general interest, in the social and ecological function of property and business activity, in the preservation of legal personality, in the demands of solidarity, and in general in the common good.