Status to Contract
- Theory
- Status to Contract
- Jurist
- Henry Maine
- Description
In Ancient Law (1861), Maine argued through the historical-comparative method that "the movement of progressive societies has hitherto been a movement from Status to Contract." Early societies fix a person's rights and duties by status assigned at birth (family, caste, group membership), whereas advancing societies free the individual to define obligations through voluntary agreement. It builds on historical jurisprudence and rejects the idea of a fixed, universal natural law.