Understanding Private Law
Essays in Honour of Stephen A Smith
Will be published approx. on 23. July 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-1-5099-7119-0 (ISBN)
Description
This book engages with some of Stephen A Smith's most significant arguments, illustrating that he was a towering figure in the field of private law, with little of the field not impacted by his scholarship.
The contributors explore Professor Smith's most controversial thinking on private law. Interrogating questions of contract law, remedies, unjust enrichment, comparative law, and the legal theory underlying these fields, this is an important publication in the field.
The contributors explore Professor Smith's most controversial thinking on private law. Interrogating questions of contract law, remedies, unjust enrichment, comparative law, and the legal theory underlying these fields, this is an important publication in the field.
Reviews / Votes
Smith did have a distinctive way of understanding law, and an equally distinctive idea of private law. And if, despite the careful and sustained attention in this book, they sometimes resist easy analysis, that is also testament to their distinctiveness. It should be read by all wishing to join in this great celebration of a great scholar, but particularly by those interested in legal methodology and private law adjudication. * Conveyancer and Property Lawyer *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5099-7119-0 (9781509971190)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Evan Fox-Decent holds the Canada Research Chair in Cosmopolitan Law and Justice at the Faculty of Law, McGill University, Canada.
John C. P. Goldberg is Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence at Harvard Law School, USA.
Lionel Smith is Professor of Comparative Law at the University of Oxford, UK.
John C. P. Goldberg is Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence at Harvard Law School, USA.
Lionel Smith is Professor of Comparative Law at the University of Oxford, UK.
Content
Foreword, Shauna Van Praagh
List of Contributors
Introduction, Evan Fox-Decent, John CP Goldberg, Lionel Smith
Part One: Methodology
1. Mapmaking and Law's Legitimacy, Larissa Katz
2. The Elegance of Private Law, Andrew Gold
3. Comparative Legal Scholarship: Anything but Ordinary, Rosalie Jukier
4. Two Genres of Interpretive Legal Theories, Hanoch Dagan
5. "Comparative Law" as an Academic Discipline, Helge Dedek
Part Two: Remedies
6. Continuity and Creativity in the Law of Remedies, Arthur Ripstein
7. The Moral Authority of Rulings, Evan Fox-Decent
8. The Continuity Thesis: The Gift that Fails to Keep on Giving, James Penner
9. Monstrans de droit, Petition of Right, and Liability for Crown Debt, Joshua Getzler
10. Trusts as Remedies, Robert Chambers
11. Remedial Restitutionary Rights?, Bill Swadling
Part Three: Contract
12. The Scope of Restraint of Trade, Robert Stevens
13. What Might Contract Theory Be?, Gregory Klass
14. Rights, Wrongs, Injustices and the Three Strata of Contract Law, Mark Gergen
15. Conceptualizing the Law of Contractual Modifications: A Different Framework, Peter Benson
16. Applying Smith to the Practice of Contract Remedies, Adam Kramer KC
17. In Defence of Smith's "In Defence of the Third-Party Rule", Jason W Neyers
Part Four: Law's Normativity
18. Trying and Succeeding, John CP Goldberg & Benjamin C. Zipursky
19. The Unknowability Objection, Dennis Klimchuk
20. Must We Know What We Owe?, Frederick Wilmot-Smith
21. The Cough Drops on Loyalty, Lionel Smith
22. Free-standing Liabilities, Nicholas J McBride
23. Is Private Law Normatively Distinctive?, Paul B Miller
List of Publications of Stephen A. Smith, 1994-2022
List of Contributors
Introduction, Evan Fox-Decent, John CP Goldberg, Lionel Smith
Part One: Methodology
1. Mapmaking and Law's Legitimacy, Larissa Katz
2. The Elegance of Private Law, Andrew Gold
3. Comparative Legal Scholarship: Anything but Ordinary, Rosalie Jukier
4. Two Genres of Interpretive Legal Theories, Hanoch Dagan
5. "Comparative Law" as an Academic Discipline, Helge Dedek
Part Two: Remedies
6. Continuity and Creativity in the Law of Remedies, Arthur Ripstein
7. The Moral Authority of Rulings, Evan Fox-Decent
8. The Continuity Thesis: The Gift that Fails to Keep on Giving, James Penner
9. Monstrans de droit, Petition of Right, and Liability for Crown Debt, Joshua Getzler
10. Trusts as Remedies, Robert Chambers
11. Remedial Restitutionary Rights?, Bill Swadling
Part Three: Contract
12. The Scope of Restraint of Trade, Robert Stevens
13. What Might Contract Theory Be?, Gregory Klass
14. Rights, Wrongs, Injustices and the Three Strata of Contract Law, Mark Gergen
15. Conceptualizing the Law of Contractual Modifications: A Different Framework, Peter Benson
16. Applying Smith to the Practice of Contract Remedies, Adam Kramer KC
17. In Defence of Smith's "In Defence of the Third-Party Rule", Jason W Neyers
Part Four: Law's Normativity
18. Trying and Succeeding, John CP Goldberg & Benjamin C. Zipursky
19. The Unknowability Objection, Dennis Klimchuk
20. Must We Know What We Owe?, Frederick Wilmot-Smith
21. The Cough Drops on Loyalty, Lionel Smith
22. Free-standing Liabilities, Nicholas J McBride
23. Is Private Law Normatively Distinctive?, Paul B Miller
List of Publications of Stephen A. Smith, 1994-2022