LAW4 620 - Remedies

Remedies is a transubstantive course: It crosses the traditional boundaries both within private law (between property, tort, and contract) and between private and public law. Remedies are the denominator common to every area of law that imposes liability. The practical value of rights in any area of law rests with the remedy available for their enforcement. Remedies can be compensatory, preventative (coercive or declaratory), restitutionary, punitive, or ancillary. The objective of this course is to examine the relationship between liability and remedy across diverse areas of law. Although more emphasis will be placed on the private law remedies, we will consider public law remedies at some depth for purposes of comparison. Do courts decide liability questions only by first deciding on the appropriate remedy, as legal realists have suggested? What are the policy considerations that bear on pairing certain kinds of remedies with certain kinds of rights? Are there any patterns that hold across different areas of law? Does economic analysis equally inform private and public law remedies? These are some of the questions we will ask during the course. The pedagogy should be familiar to students experienced in the Socratic method. We will read cases, essays, and notes in the casebook and attempt to discern the basic doctrinal and theoretical explanation that best illuminates the legal decisions we consider.

Credits: 3