The glue that holds together society
Ownership, royalties, rights
Not just legal contracts, but words as exchange of trust
Contracts can also be written to entrap and ensnare
Even evil things try to be "above board" ... Slavery was legal, contractual
The Letter of the law can be used to suffocate the Spirit of the Law
In Hadestown, a significant point was made that Eurydice "legally" signed herself over to Hades (which is not how it goes in the original Greek Myth)