Interstitial Private Law

Long regarded by US legal scholars as uninteresting, private law theory has received renewed attention in the United States and around the world. Yet, even amid this scholarly revival, private law is still too often reduced to the more traditional concepts found within tort, property, and contract law. These basic categories alone cannot provide sufficient basis for informed doctrinal analysis - lawyers who hope to apply private law theory must also understand the rules and concepts that operate independently of, across, or within the interstices of these fields.

The essays collected in Interstitial Private Law encourage the next generation of private law theorists to engage with the 'connective tissue' of private law. Internationally prominent scholars introduce and analyze these crucially important interstitial aspects, including legal personhood, agency and other attribution rules, consent, estoppel, equity, remedies, and restitution. Contributions explain what interstitial concepts are and explore the ways they operate, contributing to the systematicity and functional coherence of private law systems. In doing so, Interstitial Private Law broadens and deepens the scholarly agenda for private law theory in the United States and worldwide.

Introduction
Henry E. Smith

1. Equity Will Not. . .
Samuel L. Bray

2. Duties Owed to the Public
Nicolas Cornell

3. This Is a Chapter About Deception
Courtney M. Cox

4. On the Form and Justification of Some Private Law Rights, Liberties, and Powers
Christopher Essert

5. Consent Across Private Law
Mark P. Gergen

6. Private Law's Choice of Private Law
Andrew S. Gold

7. Recklessness in Tort: Interstitial Law as Doctrinal Fine-Tuning
John C.P. Goldberg and Benjamin C. Zipursky

8. Equitable Estoppel and Restitution as Interstitial Causes of Action
Ben McFarlane

9. The Concept of Personality in Private Law
Paul B. Miller

10. Understanding the Rules of Attribution in Private Law
James Penner

11. General Customs and Legal Institutions: The Short, Sad Example of Racially Restrictive Covenants in the United States
Carol M. Rose

12. The Threat and Promise of Collateral Benefits for Private Law's Coherence
Zoë Sinel