Many of the most influential contributions to private law scholarship in the latter part of the twentieth century go beyond purely doctrinal accounts of private law. A distinctive feature of these analyses is that they straddle the divide between legal philosophy, on the one hand, and the sort of traditional doctrinal analysis applied by the courts, on the other. The essays contained in this collection continue in this tradition. The collection is divided into two parts. The essays contained in the first part consider the nature of, and justification for, private rights generally. The essays in the second part address the justification for particular private law rights and doctrines. Offering insightful and innovative analyses, this collection will appeal to scholars in all fields of private law and legal theory.

Table Of Contents

1. Introduction

Simone Degeling, University of New South Wales, Australia, Michael JR Crawford, University of New South Wales, Australia, and Nicholas A Tiverios, University of Western Australia



PART I

THE NATURE OF PRIVATE RIGHTS

2. Justifying Private Rights

Peter Cane, University of Cambridge, UK

3. Justifying Private Law: 'Reasons Fundamentalist' Instrumentalism and the Kantian Account

James Penner, National University of Singapore

4. Intermediate and Comprehensive Justifications for Legal Rules

Stephen A Smith, McGill University, Canada

5. Can We Be Wrong About Rights?

Nicholas J McBride, University of Cambridge, UK

6. Juridical Justification of Private Rights

Paul B Miller, University of Notre Dame, USA

7. Sources of Private Rights

Lionel Smith, McGill University, Canada



PART II

PARTICULAR PRIVATE RIGHTS

8. Justifying Possession (or How We Get from Here to There)

Michael JR Crawford, University of New South Wales, Australia

9. Understanding the Tort of Deceit

Andrew Botterell, Western University, Canada

10. Justifying Liabilities and Duties

Andrew Robertson, University of Melbourne, Australia

11. Equity and the Justification of Private Rights

Ben McFarlane, University of Oxford, UK

12. Property, Therefore: Is an Equitable Doctrine of Relief against the Forfeiture of Contractual Rights Justifiable?

Nicholas A Tiverios, University of Western Australia