Overview

What makes private law private? What is its domain? What are the values it promotes? Relational Justice: A Theory of Private Law addresses these foundational questions in a robust analysis of the key doctrines of private law, including torts, contracts, and restitution.Discarding the vision of private law as a bastion of negative duties of non-interference or efficiency maximization, this book reframes private law in terms of what it calls 'relational justice' - reciprocal respect for self-determination and substantive equality. By vindicating self-determination, private law can forge the horizontal interactions vital to the ability to shape and implement a conception of the good life. By structuring these interactions in terms requiring parties to respect one another for who they are, private law can cast them as interactions between equals. In the book's first part, the authors set out a normative position they term relational justice, whereby the rules of private law abide by the fundamental maxim of reciprocal respect for self-determination and substantive equality. The second part of the book applies this framework to an analysis of familiar private law doctrinal areas, followed by a third part charting newer areas including workplace safety, poverty, discrimination, and implications for international law. Throughout, the authors show how relational justice theory provides a normative vocabulary for evaluating core features of existing private law, while suggesting directions for necessary or desirable reforms.

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9780198876229

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Reviews

Relational Justice proposes a wholesale renovation of private law. Familiar theories remain caught between two equal but opposite vices: a quietist commitment to restoring the status quo; and flat-footed reduction of private law into a tool of public justice. Now Dagan and Dorfman argue that law should help people to establish reciprocal respect for self-determination and substantive equality, one private relationship at a time. They then apply this overarching insight to reconstruct all of private law doctrine, across both conventional topics-including remedies, negligence, and good faith-and unconventional ones-including poverty, discrimination, and even workplace safety. This is a hugely creative and ambitious book. * Daniel Markovits, Guido Calabresi Professor of Law, Yale Law School * The limelight of legal scholarship seems to be focussing once again on the significance of private law within a wider political economy, drawing as much on ethical-relational exploration of care or human rights as on recent moves in the opposite direction of neo-formalism. Dagan and Dorfman's ambitious and fascinating book joins forces with the former, standing out however by its unusual plea for the responsibility of private law theory to make explicit private law's core normative commitments in respect of pre-distributional, structural justice towards the poor, the marginalised, the foreign. Interestingly in this latter respect, their argument also resonates with current attempts on the private international scene to engage responsibly with natural and cultural alterity in legal terms. * Horatia Muir Watt, Professor of Law, Sciences Po Law School (Paris) * In this important book, Dagan and Dorfman argue that private law, at its core, is not about markets or power, but about relational justice. Private law in theory and practice enables individuals to organize their horizontal relations with one another, unburdened by the demands of collective politics. The book is a must read for anybody who wishes to construct a just order from the deeply fractured order of capitalism. * Katharina Pistor, Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law, Columbia Law School * Relational Justice delivers on its sweeping promise to offer a unifying theory of private law. It does so by examining fundamental questions about how citizens in a liberal state should treat one another, and then linking its theoretical conclusions with concrete examples of the how the state can provide the legal framework for just interpersonal relationships. The project is animated by a sense of deep moral urgency, and the theory that Dagan and Dorfman offer should indeed help advance help the moral imperatives to which they respond. * Aditi Bagchi, Wilkinson Professor of Law, Fordham University *

Relational Justice proposes a wholesale renovation of private law. Familiar theories remain caught between two equal but opposite vices: a quietist commitment to restoring the status quo; and flat-footed reduction of private law into a tool of public justice. Now Dagan and Dorfman argue that law should help people to establish reciprocal respect for self-determination and substantive equality, one private relationship at a time. They then apply this overarching insight to reconstruct all of private law doctrine, across both conventional topics-including remedies, negligence, and good faith-and unconventional ones-including poverty, discrimination, and even workplace safety. This is a hugely creative and ambitious book. * Daniel Markovits, Guido Calabresi Professor of Law, Yale Law School * The limelight of legal scholarship seems to be focussing once again on the significance of private law within a wider political economy, drawing as much on ethical-relational exploration of care or human rights as on recent moves in the opposite direction of neo-formalism. Dagan and Dorfman's ambitious and fascinating book joins forces with the former, standing out however by its unusual plea for the responsibility of private law theory to make explicit private law's core normative commitments in respect of pre-distributional, structural justice towards the poor, the marginalised, the foreign. Interestingly in this latter respect, their argument also resonates with current attempts on the private international scene to engage responsibly with natural and cultural alterity in legal terms. * Horatia Muir Watt, Professor of Law, Sciences Po Law School (Paris) * In this important book, Dagan and Dorfman argue that private law, at its core, is not about markets or power, but about relational justice. Private law in theory and practice enables individuals to organize their horizontal relations with one another, unburdened by the demands of collective politics. The book is a must read for anybody who wishes to construct a just order from the deeply fractured order of capitalism. * Katharina Pistor, Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law, Columbia Law School * Relational Justice delivers on its sweeping promise to offer a unifying theory of private law. It does so by examining fundamental questions about how citizens in a liberal state should treat one another, and then linking its theoretical conclusions with concrete examples of the how the state can provide the legal framework for just interpersonal relationships. The project is animated by a sense of deep moral urgency, and the theory that Dagan and Dorfman offer should indeed help advance help the moral imperatives to which they respond. * Aditi Bagchi, Wilkinson Professor of Law, Fordham University * If you think that the ideas of self-determination and substantive equality are too abstract or malleable to support a unifying account of private law, Relational Justice is the best attempt to convince you otherwise. No other work in private law theory treats those ideas in so deep, insightful and carefully balanced manner, or derives more practical mileage from them. As the culmination of Dagan and Dorfman's pioneering research, this book is both a major reference point and the seed for fruitful new lines of thought. * Emmanuel Voyiakis, Professor of Law, LSE Law School * Going against the grain of fragmentation and relativism in contemporary private law and its theory, Dagan and Dorfman offer a comprehensive account with universal vocation of how the law should contribute to just interpersonal relations. This is grand theory at its best. * Martijn Hesselink, Professor of Transnational Law and Theory, European University Institute * Relational Justice makes a fundamental contribution towards shifting the dominant theory of private law scholarship away from the view that private law is all about wealth and consequences and towards the view that private law is about what we owe to one another in some of our most important interpersonal relationships. Relational Justice bills itself as a theory of private law but, in a tribute to the fertility of the conception it advances, the book ranges beyond private law to illuminate legal domains as diverse as discrimination and workplace safety. By synthesizing and extending a decade's worth of influential scholarship, Relational Justice makes clear the richness, the range, and the perceptiveness of Dagan's and Dorfman's theory of private law. * Gregory C. Keating, William T. Dalessi Professor of Law and Philosophy, USC Gould School of Law * Relational Justice makes a fundamental contribution towards shifting the dominant theory of private law scholarship away from the view that private law is all about wealth and consequences and towards the view that private law is about what we owe to one another in some of our most important interpersonal relationships. Relational Justice bills itself as a theory of private law but, in a tribute to the fertility of the conception it advances, the book ranges beyond private law to illuminate legal domains as diverse as discrimination and workplace safety. By synthesizing and extending a decade's worth of influential scholarship, Relational Justice makes clear the richness, the range, and the perceptiveness of Dagan's and Dorfman's theory of private law. * Gregory C. Keating, William T. Dalessi Professor of Law and Philosophy, USC Gould School of Law * If you think that the ideas of self-determination and substantive equality are too abstract or malleable to support a unifying account of private law, Relational Justice is the best attempt to convince you otherwise. No other work in private law theory treats those ideas in so deep, insightful and carefully balanced manner, or derives more practical mileage from them. As the culmination of Dagan and Dorfman's pioneering research, this book is both a major reference point and the seed for fruitful new lines of thought. * Emmanuel Voyiakis, Professor of Law, LSE Law School * Going against the grain of fragmentation and relativism in contemporary private law and its theory, Dagan and Dorfman offer a comprehensive account with universal vocation of how the law should contribute to just interpersonal relations. This is grand theory at its best. * Martijn Hesselink, Professor of Transnational Law and Theory, European University Institute *

Relational Justice proposes a wholesale renovation of private law. Familiar theories remain caught between two equal but opposite vices: a quietist commitment to restoring the status quo; and flat-footed reduction of private law into a tool of public justice. Now Dagan and Dorfman argue that law should help people to establish reciprocal respect for self-determination and substantive equality, one private relationship at a time. They then apply this overarching insight to reconstruct all of private law doctrine, across both conventional topics-including remedies, negligence, and good faith-and unconventional ones-including poverty, discrimination, and even workplace safety. This is a hugely creative and ambitious book. * Daniel Markovits, Guido Calabresi Professor of Law, Yale Law School * The limelight of legal scholarship seems to be focussing once again on the significance of private law within a wider political economy, drawing as much on ethical-relational exploration of care or human rights as on recent moves in the opposite direction of neo-formalism. Dagan and Dorfman's ambitious and fascinating book joins forces with the former, standing out however by its unusual plea for the responsibility of private law theory to make explicit private law's core normative commitments in respect of pre-distributional, structural justice towards the poor, the marginalised, the foreign. Interestingly in this latter respect, their argument also resonates with current attempts on the private international scene to engage responsibly with natural and cultural alterity in legal terms. * Horatia Muir Watt, Professor of Law, Sciences Po Law School (Paris) * Relational Justice delivers on its sweeping promise to offer a unifying theory of private law. It does so by examining fundamental questions about how citizens in a liberal state should treat one another, and then linking its theoretical conclusions with concrete examples of the how the state can provide the legal framework for just interpersonal relationships. The project is animated by a sense of deep moral urgency, and the theory that Dagan and Dorfman offer should indeed help advance help the moral imperatives to which they respond. * Aditi Bagchi, Wilkinson Professor of Law, Fordham University * Going against the grain of fragmentation and relativism in contemporary private law and its theory, Dagan and Dorfman offer a comprehensive account with universal vocation of how the law should contribute to just interpersonal relations. This is grand theory at its best. * Martijn Hesselink, Professor of Transnational Law and Theory, European University Institute * Relational Justice makes a fundamental contribution towards shifting the dominant theory of private law scholarship away from the view that private law is all about wealth and consequences and towards the view that private law is about what we owe to one another in some of our most important interpersonal relationships. Relational Justice bills itself as a theory of private law but, in a tribute to the fertility of the conception it advances, the book ranges beyond private law to illuminate legal domains as diverse as discrimination and workplace safety. By synthesizing and extending a decade's worth of influential scholarship, Relational Justice makes clear the richness, the range, and the perceptiveness of Dagan's and Dorfman's theory of private law. * Gregory C. Keating, William T. Dalessi Professor of Law and Philosophy, USC Gould School of Law * If you think that the ideas of self-determination and substantive equality are too abstract or malleable to support a unifying account of private law, Relational Justice is the best attempt to convince you otherwise. No other work in private law theory treats those ideas in so deep, insightful and carefully balanced manner, or derives more practical mileage from them. As the culmination of Dagan and Dorfman's pioneering research, this book is both a major reference point and the seed for fruitful new lines of thought. * Emmanuel Voyiakis, Professor of Law, LSE Law School * In this important book, Dagan and Dorfman argue that private law, at its core, is not about markets or power, but about relational justice. Private law in theory and practice enables individuals to organize their horizontal relations with one another, unburdened by the demands of collective politics. The book is a must read for anybody who wishes to construct a just order from the deeply fractured order of capitalism. * Katharina Pistor, Edwin B. Parker Professor of Comparative Law, Columbia Law School * The book is a breakthrough achievement, first for showing the sheer need for some sort of theory of justice that might make our private law intelligible, and then for proposing one. The theory of relational justice the authors propose is morally attractive, and the proposed reforms they claim it requires are provocative, well-reasoned, and attainable. Their account will convince many, and will move others who may not be convinced by the theory's particulars to propose alternatives. The result will be a conversation which is long overdue. * Robin West, Professor of Law, Emerita, Georgetown University Law Center *

Author Information

Hanoch Dagan is the founding Director of the Berkeley Center for Private Law Theory. Dagan has written seven books, including A Liberal Theory of Property (2021) and The Choice Theory of Contracts (2017), and has published over 120 articles in major law reviews and journals. Before joining Berkeley, Dagan was the Stewart and Judy Colton Professor of Legal Theory and Innovation and the Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Tel-Aviv University. He has been a visiting professor at Yale, Columbia, Michigan, Cornell, UCLA, and Toronto, and delivered keynote speeches and endowed lectures in Singapore, Alabama, Toronto, Queensland, Cape Town, Monash, and Oxford. Avihay Dorfman is a professor at Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law. He works in the theoretical foundations of law. He has written numerous articles on a variety of basic questions in private law theory and doctrine as well as on the morality of public ordering, including privatization, public property, and political authority. Dorfman is a graduate of Yale Law School and a former law clerk to the (then) Chief Justice Aharon Barak. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and Cornell Law School.

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