Private Law Theory

ABSTRACT
Which methodology should legal science aspire to if it is to find its own, distinctive character as a science of the law? Is there any genuine legal methodology to cope with the doctrinal riddles of contracts, torts and property? Does the social embeddedness of private law institutions push private law scholarship in the direction of more empirical, especially economic, sociological and historical, research? Or is it, quite to the contrary, more philosophical reasoning on the value foundations of private contracts and property that engenders the essence of private law methodology?

Auer, Marietta, A Genealogy of Private Law Epistemologies (March 7, 2023). Forthcoming, Thilo Kuntz and Paul B Miller, eds, Methodology in Private Law Theory (Oxford University Press).