What Happened to Private Law in the US

Abstract

Scholars associated with New Private Law have made persuasive arguments for the practical benefits of private law and have offered a surprisingly wide range of modern theoretical justifications for the continued role of private law. What is missing is the mechanism by which a thriving body of private legal doctrine can be sustained in a post-Realist legal environment such as the U.S., where determinate rules of common law, enforced through private litigation, no longer play a central role in the legal system.

Keywords: private law, Realism

JEL Classification: K00