The Impacts Of Religion On American Contract Law Thoughts Within The Western Legal System

Religion plays an important role in the formation of a legal system. This thesisaims to explore the impacts of religious beliefs on the western legal system andexamine how such influences contributed to the shaping and development of certainAmerican contract law thoughts.Since the American legal system was largely inherited from the British traditionswhich developed in the western legal environment, it is necessary to understand thewestern legal context before getting to know the American legal system andphilosophy, including the contract law thoughts. This thesis attempts to make a studyon certain important religious events which exerted great influence on the rise ofmodern western legal systems, hence to dig out how the American contract lawthoughts were influenced therefrom.First, the thesis introduces some basic definitions and the scope of contract lawand briefly reviews the existing literature on the American contract law. Then thethesis illustrates how such influential religious events as the Papal Revolution and theProtestant movements impacted the western legal system, and how suchreligion-driven western legal system further impacted the American contract lawthoughts. Last but not the least, the thesis attempts to expound that the contract lawthoughts contributed to the prosperity of the American society, which laid anideological foundation for the establishment of the constitutional law thoughts, andpromoted the development of the trading and business activities.