Bringing together established academics and new researchers, the chapters in this collection interrogate the operation of 'the public' in a range of different legal, illegal and alegal spaces. The key question which frames the contributions is whether and in what manner 'the public' operates as an interface between law and society, allowing the interests and opinions of the population at large to be represented and reflected in legal discourse, such that collectively generated imperatives may be imposed upon political and economic actors. Multi-disciplinary in its approach, the volume reflects an understanding that there is more to the role of 'the public' in relation to law than the conventional demarcation of the field of 'public law' and that this relationship is open to comment from a wide range of actors.

Bringing together established academics and new researchers, the chapters in this collection interrogate the operation of 'the public' in a range of different legal, illegal and alegal spaces. The key question which frames the contributions is whether and in what manner 'the public' operates as an interface between law and society, allowing the interests and opinions of the population at large to be represented and reflected in legal discourse, such that collectively generated imperatives may be imposed upon political and economic actors. Multi-disciplinary in its approach, the volume reflects an understanding that there is more to the role of 'the public' in relation to law than the conventional demarcation of the field of 'public law' and that this relationship is open to comment from a wide range of actors.

The contributions to this edited volume engage with John Gardner's philosophical work on private law. The content is divided into three parts. The first part gathers contributions on general theoretical issues that bear upon private law. The second part is concerned with Gardner's well-known views on responding to wrongs and the justification of reparative duties - an issue that spans all of private law. The third part turns to theoretical issues within particular areas of private law. Its focus is Gardner's focus: tort law, but it also includes chapters on contract law and equity. The primary aim of Private Law and Practical Reason is to facilitate a critical assessment of the private law thinking of one of the most important legal philosophers of the last fifty years. Gardner's contributions to private law theory are recognised to be amongst the most significant and philosophically rich. This work assembles a group of contributors with diverse theoretical commitments, many of whom have not directly engaged previously with Gardner's work, and is intended to act as a reference point for central debates in private law theory, such as the role of moral duties, the justification of reparative obligations, and, more broadly, the role of reasons in private law.