Private Law and Practical Reason

Abstract The contributions to this edited volume engage with John Gardner’s philosophical work on private law. The volume is divided into three parts. The first part gathers contributions on general theoretical issues that bear upon private law. The second is concerned with Gardner’s well-known views on responding to wrongs and the justification of reparative duties—an issue which spans across all of private law. The third turns to theoretical issues within particular areas of private law; its focus is Gardner’s focus, tort law, but it also includes chapters on contract law and equity. The volume’s primary aim is to facilitate a critical assessment of the private law thinking of one of the most important legal philosophers of the last 50 years. Gardner’s contributions to private law theory are recognized to be among the most significant and philosophically rich. The edited volume assembles a group of contributors with diverse theoretical commitments, many of whom have not directly engaged previously with Gardner’s work, and is intended to act as a reference point for central debates in private law theory, such as the role of moral duties, the justification of reparative obligations, and, more broadly, the role of reasons in private law.