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Grundmann, Stefan --- "Contractual Networks in German Private Law" [2011] ELECD 281; in Cafaggi, Fabrizio (ed), "Contractual Networks, Inter-Firm Cooperation and Economic Growth" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Contractual Networks, Inter-Firm Cooperation and Economic Growth

Editor(s): Cafaggi, Fabrizio

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848448896

Section: Chapter 5

Section Title: Contractual Networks in German Private Law

Author(s): Grundmann, Stefan

Number of pages: 52

Extract:

5. Contractual networks in German
private law
Stefan Grundmann

1. PRACTICAL IMPORTANCE AND STRUCTURES
(PHENOMENOLOGY)

In this first section, we briefly look at the importance and phenomena
of networks of contracts (sub-sections 1.1 and 1.2). The core questions,
however, do not depend so much on this phenomenology, but rather
on the design of the contractual relationship (see below sub-section
1.3). What is important from the outset is the nexus: it is characteristic
of networks of contracts that a plurality of contracts, in the perception
of the partners, are linked in such a way that only their interaction can
guarantee success for all. To this extent, the contracts are `linked' or
`interconnected',1 although, on the other hand, not all participants enter


1 This characterisation is sufficient basis for the discussion in this text, and

nobody questions the fact that the nexus extends at least that far. See references in
the next footnote. The term `network of contracts' is used in the following for all
such combinations of contracts irrespective of whether it is in form of stars, chains,
triangles or circles (see below 1.2), because, as explained below, the form does not
really influence the legal treatment. For other attempts to define this term, see lit-
erature cited in this chapter and from the German speaking literature: M. Amstutz,
`Vertragskollisionen: Fragmente für eine Lehre von der Vertragsverbindung',
Festschrift for Rey 2003, 161­76; P. Krebs, Sonderverbindung und außerdelik-
tische Schutzpflichten, (Munich: Beck, ...