Law and ethics restitution

Hanoch Dagan0521829046, 9780521829045, 9780511216480

Dagan’s book provides a dynamic and much needed account of the American law of restitution. The book reviews the existing doctrine, including the forthcoming (third) Restatement, using an ethical perspective to expose and critically examine the normative underpinnings of restitution’s core categories. The author also discusses some of the most controversial issues in the area, such as cohabitation, improper tax payments, and the role of constructive trusts as trumps in bankruptcy. He argues that the concept of unjust enrichment is not an independent reason for restitution but, rather, serves as a loose framework, structuring the contextual application of commitments to autonomy, utility, and community in situations where either the cause of action or the measure of recovery is benefit-based. By integrating doctrinal and ethical analyses of restitution across the spectrum of restitution contexts, the author offers significant and provocative insights on existing law as well as possible reforms.

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Table of contents :
COVER……Page 1
HALF-TITLE……Page 3
TITLE……Page 5
COPYRIGHT……Page 6
DEDICATION……Page 7
CONTENTS……Page 9
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……Page 11
TABLE OF CASES……Page 12
US……Page 21
Treaties……Page 22
1 Introduction……Page 25
2 Preventing unjust enrichment……Page 35
A Between moral principles and open-ended discretion……Page 36
B The positivist trap of unjustified enrichment……Page 42
C Unjust enrichment as a framework and an invitation……Page 49
3 Mistakes……Page 61
A Correcting involuntariness……Page 64
Pure unilateral cases……Page 65
Reinstating the commands of the will……Page 66
Expanding the actor’s freedom of action……Page 67
Securing the integrity of the self……Page 68
Liberty vs. security……Page 69
The harm……Page 71
Loss avoidance……Page 73
Mistake-avoidance costs……Page 76
Administrative costs……Page 77
Two categories……Page 78
Rejecting one-sided alternatives……Page 79
The intermediate alternatives……Page 80
Payments from institutions……Page 84
Payments to institutions……Page 87
The prescriptions of the theory……Page 88
The new Restatement……Page 89
Restatement or revision?……Page 91
Reconstructing the bona fide creditor defense……Page 94
D Improper tax payments……Page 98
The law……Page 99
Reform……Page 101
E Noncash bene.ts……Page 104
F Improvements of property……Page 106
4 Other-regarding conferrals of bene.ts……Page 110
A Good samaritans, involuntary bailees, and maritime salvors……Page 113
Good samaritans protecting life or health……Page 114
Involuntary bailees……Page 115
Maritime salvors……Page 116
The new Restatement……Page 118
B Autonomy and beneficial interventions……Page 119
The hypothetical contract theory……Page 120
The Restatement’s ideal……Page 121
Strong and weak hypothetical contracts……Page 122
Weak hypothetical contracts and autonomy……Page 123
Restitution as institutionalized limited altruism……Page 125
Altruism and law……Page 127
Three conceptions of altruism……Page 130
D The significance of the intervention’s success……Page 132
E The benefactor’s claim for remuneration……Page 136
The overly restrictive doctrine……Page 137
The measure of recovery……Page 139
F The benefactor’s claim to compensation for losses……Page 141
5 Self-interested conferrals of bene.ts……Page 147
Established categories and their loose-ends……Page 149
Pushing the boundaries: the tobacco litigation……Page 152
Beyond officiousness and unjust enrichment……Page 153
B Restitution fromfree-riders……Page 154
Solving detrimental free-riding behavior by awarding restitution……Page 155
Justifying law’s intervention……Page 157
The Restatement’s objection and the institutional lessons……Page 160
C On subjective devaluation……Page 163
The principle of subjective devaluation……Page 164
The scope of subjective devaluation……Page 166
Further implications of subjective devaluation……Page 169
Subjective devaluation and market encouragement……Page 171
Conflicts of interests……Page 172
The impact of contractual background……Page 174
E Third-party effects……Page 176
Testing the theory……Page 179
A note on statutory interventions……Page 183
The risks of subrogation……Page 185
6 Restitution in contexts of informal intimacy……Page 188
A Unjust enrichment between cohabitants……Page 189
Restitution as a source of contribution-based recovery……Page 191
Restitution and long-term reciprocity……Page 196
Between cohabitation and marriage: contribution vs. equal sharing……Page 202
Eliminating informal cohabitation……Page 204
The doctrine……Page 207
Necessaries and reciprocity……Page 209
Scope and nature of liability……Page 212
The future of the necessaries doctrine……Page 213
The doctrine……Page 214
Between impaired consent and abuse of power……Page 215
An embarrassing bias?……Page 217
Undue influence, reciprocity, and free agency……Page 218
Liberalizing restitutionary claims between co-owners……Page 226
Expanding or restricting the scope of contracts implied by law……Page 230
7 Wrongful enrichments……Page 234
A The distributive foundation of restitutionary claims……Page 237
Thesis 1: the significance of correlativity to private law……Page 241
Proposition: not all tortfeasors are liable for gains……Page 242
Thesis 3: the idea of property as a value-free premise……Page 243
Proposition: different measures of recovery apply to unauthorized alienation and unauthorized use……Page 244
The impossibility of a nondistributive private law……Page 245
Situating correlativity on a distributive foundation……Page 248
Weinrib’s doctrinal propositions……Page 252
D Joint infringements……Page 255
E Breach of fiduciary duties……Page 258
F Misappropriation of body parts……Page 264
G Gains from slave labor……Page 270
On legal strategy and its costs……Page 272
Restitution of pro.ts and human rights……Page 274
Limitations, good faith purchase for value, and distributive justice……Page 278
8 Restitution in a contractual context……Page 284
The debated case……Page 285
Unjust enrichment; property……Page 290
Promise-keeping……Page 292
Efficiency……Page 296
Good faith……Page 302
The opposing positions……Page 306
Unjust enrichment; contract……Page 307
Identifying the best default rule……Page 311
C Leapfrogging contracts……Page 313
9 Restitution in bankruptcy……Page 321
A The constructive trust as a trump……Page 323
B Critiques……Page 326
Criticizing transactional tracing……Page 327
Redeeming bankruptcy’s ratable distribution……Page 329
Criticizing the critiques……Page 332
State law……Page 335
Constructive trust as a vindication of property……Page 337
Unjust enrichment as the foundation of equitable ownership……Page 341
D The lesson of constructive trusts……Page 346
10 Reasons for restitution……Page 352
Books……Page 356
Law review articles……Page 364
Book chapters……Page 382
Other……Page 389
INDEX……Page 390