From the Will theory to the principle of private autonomy: Lon Fuller's "Consideration and Form"

Lon Fuller's "Consideration and Form" originated a scheme for the analysis of contract questions based on multiple formal and substantive considerations, with "the principle of private autonomy" first among equals. This Article places Fuller's scheme in the context of the critique of the nine teenth-century will theory of contracts and the rise of sociological jurisprudence and legal realism. Fuller built on European legal theory and on civilian contract law solutions that seemed more flexible than those provided by the objective theory of contract formation and consideration doctrine. Fuller's scheme came closer to modern policy analysis than anything in the prior literature. Tt nonetheless achieved only a partial synthesis, denying any place to what the writers of the time called the "social" dimension of the field and underplaying conflict among the factors he identified. These traits may be explained by the fact that he was breaking new ground and by the center-right ideological agenda he was purusing within private law theory.