Fiduciary duties are widely viewed as essential to myriad private relationships, including guardianships, employment relationships, trusts, business organizations, and professional relationships. Recently, legal scholars and courts have devoted increasing attention to the application of fiduciary principles to public officials and public institutions. Some have argued that fiduciary relationships are unified by a common structure, but courts and commentators typically treat each fiduciary relationship as distinct. As a result, fiduciary law is often viewed as fragmented. The Research Handbook on Fiduciary Law shows that fiduciary law can be a distinctive field of study in its own right. This timely work presents important accounts of fiduciary relationships and new ideas on how fiduciary law can be explained. Coverage includes discussion of fiduciary obligations, fiduciary remedies, the role of equity and trusts, and public fiduciary law. A number of comparative perspectives are introduced to highlight similarities and differences between leading jurisdictions. The chapters in this Research Handbook help to show why this subject has drawn so many distinctive points of view, and sheds new light on a multi-faceted and rapidly growing field of study. This Research Handbook will be of interest to readers concerned with both the theory and practice of fiduciary law, as it incorporates significant new insights and developments in the field. It will also act as a starting point of new inquiry for those looking to contribute to the field themselves. Contributors include: S.M. Bainbridge, S.L. Bray, C.M. Bruner, M. Conaglen, E.J. Criddle, D.A. DeMott, E. Fox-Decent, S. Galoob, M. Gelter, A.S. Gold, M. Harding, G. Helleringer, C. Hill, J. Hill, L.P.Q. Johnson, S.H. Kim, A. Laby, E. Leib, A. Licht, B. McDonnell, P. Miller, D.T. Rave, D.G. Smith, A. Tuch, J. Velasco

The idea that the state is a fiduciary to its citizens has a long pedigree - ultimately reaching back to the ancient Greeks, and including Hobbes and Locke among its proponents. Public fiduciary theory is now experiencing a resurgence, with applications that range from international law, to insider trading by members of Congress, to election law and gerrymandering. This book is the first of its kind: a collection of chapters by leading writers on public fiduciary subject areas. The authors develop new accounts of how fiduciary principles apply to representation; to officials and judges; to problems of legitimacy and political obligation; to positive rights; to the state itself; and to the history of ideas. The resulting volume should be of great interest to political theorists and public law scholars, to private fiduciary law scholars, and to students seeking an introduction to this new and increasingly relevant area of study.

The Oxford Handbook of the New Private Law reflects exciting developments in scholarship dedicated to reinvigorating the study of the broad field of private law. This field embraces the traditional common law subjects (property, contracts, and torts), as well as adjacent, more statutory areas, such as intellectual property and commercial law. It also includes important areas that have been neglected in the United States but are beginning to make a comeback. These include unjust enrichment, restitution, equity, and remedies more generally. "Private law" can also mean private law as a whole, which invites consideration of issues such as the public-private distinction, the similarities and differences between the various areas of private law, and the institutional framework supporting private law - including courts, arbitrators, and even custom. The New Private Law is an approach to these subjects that aims to bring a new outlook to the study of private law by moving beyond reductively instrumentalist policy evaluation and narrow, rule-by-rule, doctrine-by-doctrine analysis, so as to consider and capture how private law's various features fit and work together, as well as the normative underpinnings of these larger structures. This movement has begun resuscitating the notion of private law itself in the United States and has brought an interdisciplinary perspective to the more traditional, doctrinal approach prevalent in Commonwealth countries. The Handbook embraces a broad range of perspectives to private law - including philosophical, economic, historical, and psychological, to name a few - yet it offers a unifying theme of seriousness about the structure and content of private law. It will be an essential resource for legal scholars interested in the future of this important field.