| Summary: | The structure of common law has for many years been the subject of intense debate between formalists and functionalists. The former, drawing on legal realism, proposes that transactional law is a private law for interacting parties, while the later inspired by Kant, argue it is a public law serving the collective ends of society. But what if there were a unity between functionalism and formalism? What if, in this unity private law is modfied by a common good? In this revised and re-written edition, Alan Brudner draws on Hegel's legal philosophy to exhibit this unity in each of transactional laws main divisions; property, contract, unjust enrichment and tort. Brudner suggests each of these divisions is composed of private-law and public-law parts that complement each other and that they are connected by a single narrative thread. This thread consists in development towards a goal.
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