Opponent's Statement to Evaluate the Doctoral Dissertation of Master of Law Anna Hurmerinta-Haanpää: “The Many Functions of Contracts – How Companies Use Contracts in Interorganizational Exchange Relations”

The Many Functions of Contract is an ambitious article-based thesis to develop a new approach to business contracting. The traditional approach, which emphasizes safeguarding from risks and sees contracts as a communication device between lawyers, has long been criticized by relational contract theory, proactive law and many other alternative approaches to contract law. Anna Hurmerinta-Haanpää approaches contracts as devices for business potential underlining the various functions of contracts and the relationship between contracts and relational norms to gain a comprehensive understanding of the various uses of contracts.