Hart Publishing Justice in Private Law (Hart Studies in Private Law)

The book sets out a general approach to private law, covering contract, tort and private property. Identifying certain fundamental aspects of these areas, it illustrates how this approach can provide solutions to certain longstanding problems. Two overarching ideas inform this novel approach: ‘standpoint imitation’ and ‘remedial consistency’. The standpoint limitation explains the distinctive character of private law, that is to say why it is focussed mainly though not exclusively on the interests of the two parties rather than the common welfare. Remedial consistency explains the way in which remedies depend on and give effect to primary rights. The book goes on to consider the nature of theories of law in order to make clear the sort of theory suggested, and common law legal reasoning and how it is related to the suggested approach. This provides a unique way of thinking about private law and its role in dispensing justice which will be of interest to all those in the field.