Workshop on The Humanity of Private Law
What is the purpose of private law? This fundamental question was front and centre at a workshop at Western Law on April 17, 2019. The workshop was organized as a series of responses to a recent book by Nicholas McBride, The Humanity of Private Law (Hart 2018). McBride rejects the leading answers—among them that private law aims to maximize wealth or to preserve relationships of mutual independence between people—and instead contends that private law seeks to promote a particular view of human flourishing.
He argues that his explanation of the purpose of private law is a better fit with the existing jurisprudence and is a more plausible explanation than that offered by other theories. Central to his theory is the notion of flourishing. In simple terms, a flourishing life is a life that is going well. It has many elements, including good health, being well-educated, having friends and a life partner, desiring to pursue a meaningful cause or project, being creative, and enjoying the external goods (property, income) required to achieve these elements.
The workshop, organized by Jason Neyers, gathered over a dozen private law theorists from Western, Toronto, York, Queen’s and Michigan to discuss the book. Each session started with observations from a commentator, followed by responses from McBride and then general discussion. The discussion was vigorous, since McBride’s argument is highly novel and most attendees subscribe to other theories of private law.
McBride, who is a fellow of Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, has written widely on private law and is working on a sequel to The Humanity of Private Law.
