Foundations of Private Law

Foundations of Private Law is a treatise on the Western law of property, contract, tort and unjust enrichment in both common law systems and civil law systems. The thesis of the book is that underlying these fields of law are common principles, and that these principles can be used to explain the history and development of these areas. These underlying common principles are matters of common sense, which were given their archetypal expression by older jurists who
wrote in the Aristotelian tradition. These principles shaped the development of Western law but can resolve legal problems which these older writers did not confront.

Author Biography

James Gordley received a B.A (1967) and M.B.A. (1968) from the University of Chicago and a J.D. (1970) from Harvard Law School. After a year in private practice and a fellowship in Italy, he became Ezra Ripley Thayer Fellow at Harvard Law School and then fellow at the Medieval Institute of Canon Law at Berkeley, he joined the Berkeley Law Faculty in 1978 where he became a full professor in 1981, and Shannon Cecil Turner Professor of Jurisprudence in 1996. He is
currently Co-Editor in Chief of the American Journal of Comparative Law, a member titulaire of the International Academy of Comparative Law, a member of the Consulting Board of The European Review of
Contract Law, and a member of the Board of Editors, Trento Project on the Common Core of European Law.