The contract as a tool for social justice: perspectives for legal and economic inclusion

Abstract

This article analyzes contracts from a social justice perspective, focusing on their potential as instruments of legal and economic inclusion. Based on liberal principles such as free will, formal equality, and binding force, contracts have historically contributed to perpetuating inequalities, especially in situations of significant social asymmetries. Therefore, it is necessary to reinterpret them in light of the constitutional principles of human dignity, solidarity, and social function. Thus, the scope of this work is to demonstrate how contracts, beyond an agreement between parties, can be tools for social transformation, capable of promoting access to rights and the redistribution of opportunities. The methodological approach was qualitative, using the deductive method, based on a bibliographic review of classical and contemporary doctrines, highlighting the contributions of Roppo (1977) and Timm (2012). Thus, it is concluded that contracts, when conceived from a constitutional and functional perspective, can break with the exclusionary logic of the market and act as a vector for citizenship and equity.