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. The Enlightenment driven process began with the Industrial Revolution’s global proliferation and sustained till 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.

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