Abstract
While the law increasingly offers legal protections for 'weaker' parties in economic relationships, this is not the case to the same extent in family relationships. In economic relationships, there are numerous examples of protective legal rules that seek to mitigate or compensate power imbalances between the parties, both before, during and at the end of the relationship. In family relationships between intimate partners, such protective rules are much more sparse, or even completely absent. In case a relationship hits rough ground, one is thus better off as a business partner than as an intimate partner. This discrepancy raises questions about the underlying rationales and assumptions that shape legal protections in the family and the economic sphere, and about the value(s) that we attach to the family and the market. However, legal protections in private relationships are rarely ever studied in an integrated way, which severely hinders a critical evaluation. By critically comparing and challenging legal protections for 'weaker' parties in family and economic relationships, project FAM*ECO aims to contribute to a comprehensive framework for legal protections in private law and to advance the conversation about family and market values.
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