Balzac et l’injustice du contrat : l’Autonomie contractuelle dans La Comédie humaine

Trade and exchange, as formalised in contracts, constitute the dominant form of human relations in the society described in the Human Comedy. This paper compares the general conception of the contract as it emerges through its rules in civil law in relation with its philosophical underpinnings in the writings of Kant or Bentham, with its representation in The Vicar of Tours, Gobseck and Lost Illusions: behind the formal equality of the law an unequal society reigns concealed, for the material inequalities between men cannot be eliminated since maintaining and exploiting them are the very conditions of a capitalist economy. Equality between the contracting parties, like the autonomy of the subject of the law, understood to be the capacity to make rational choices, are utopian; like the value of contractual justice, they should be listed as one of the "lost illusions".