North American Workshop on Private Law Theory

January 31-February 1, 2025

About the Workshop

In 2025 BCPLT will host the eleventh annual North American Workshop on Private Law Theory (NAWPLT). NAWPLT is a yearly conference that gathers dozens of American-based private law scholars to discuss works-in-progress. Papers will address topics within private law including contracts, equity, property, restitution, remedies, and torts, and are selected to reflect a diversity of perspectives and methodologies.

Program

The program features 6 sessions in which we will discuss 6 papers dedicating 90 minutes to each. The discussion will begin with the commentator who will have 15 minutes to speak, followed by a brief response (5 to 10 minutes) by the author and then an open discussion. We obviously encourage all participants to read the papers in advance to facilitate discussion during the conference.

Thursday, January 30, 2025 – Faculty Club

5:30 pm – 6:30 pm: The John G. Fleming Lecture

Presenter: Ernest Weinrib, Theology in Vincent v. Lake Erie

6:30 pm – 8:15 pm: Dinner 

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Day 1 – Friday, January 31 – Warren Room, 295

8:30 am – 9:00 am: Breakfast

9:00 am – 9:15 am

Welcome and Opening Remarks

9:15 am – 10:45 am

Presenter: Sam Bray: Why Equity Changes

Commenter: Henry Smith

11:00 am – 12:30 pm

Presenter: Danielle D’Onfro: Revisiting Tortious Interference with Contract

Commentator: Jennifer Nadler

12:20 pm – 2:00 pm: Lunch

2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Presenter: Catherine Valcke: Taking Legal Difference Seriously: Objective and Subjective Contractual Consent

Commentor: Sadie Blanchard

4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

Presenter: James Toomey: Fiduciary Standards

Commentator: Lionel Smith

6:00 pm: Dinner – Faculty Club

Day 2 – Saturday, February 1

8:30 am – 9:00 am: Continental Breakfast

9:00 am – 10:30 am

Presenter: Shyamkrishna Balganesh: The Eunomics of Intellectual Property

Commentator: Courtney Cox

10:45 am – 12:15 pm

Presenter: Samuel Beswick: The Defense of Public Necessity

Commentator: Seth Davis

12:15 pm: Lunch and Departures

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Participants

Yuval Abrams (Michigan State)
José Argueta Funes (Berkeley)
Gilat Bachar (Temple)
Aditi Bagchi (Fordham)
Shyam Balganesh (Columbia)
Samuel Beswick (British Columbia)
Brian Bix (Minnesota)
Sadie Blanchard
Debadatta Bose (Berkeley)
Andrew Botterell (Western)
Andrew Bradt (Berkeley)
Erika Chamberlain (Western)
Thomas Christiano (Arizona)
Courtney Cox (Fordham)
Danielle D’Onfro (WashU)
Hanoch Dagan (Berkeley)
William Darwall (Berkeley)
Seth Davis (Berkeley)
Melvin Eisenberg (Berkeley)
Chris Essert (Toronto)
Brittany Farr (NYU)
Mark Gergen
Matthew Hamilton (Berkeley)
Adam Hofri-Winogradow (British Columbia)f
Pinchas Huberman (Berkeley)
Robin Kar (Illinois)
Chris Kutz (Berkeley)
Samuel L. Bray (Notre Dame)
Ela Leshem (Fordham)
Jed Lewinsohn (Pittsburgh)
Isabella Luisa Mariana (Berkeley)
Crescente Molina (Rutgers)
Jennifer Nadler (Osgoode)
Jason Neyers (Western)
John Oberdiek (Rutgers)
Alberto Pino-Emhart (Adolfo Ibanez)
Michael Pressman (Harvard)
Cosim Sayid (Rutgers)
Lauren Scholz (FSU)
Daimeon Shanks-Dumont (Berkeley)
Seana Shiffrin (UCLA)
Kenneth Simons (Irvine)
Zoë Sinel (Western)
Henry Smith (Harvard)
Lionel Smith (Oxford)
Martin Stone (Cardozo)
Gregg Strauss (Virginia)
Jean Thomas (Queen’s)
James Toomey (Iowa)
Catherine Valcke (Toronto)
Molly Van Houweling (Berkeley)
Daniel Viehoff (Berkeley)
Konstanze von Schütz (McGill)
Jordan Wallace-Wolf (Little Rock)
Ernest Weinrib (Toronto)
Stav Zeitouni (Berkeley)

Organizing Committee

Aditi Bagchi
Professor of Law
Fordham Law

Molly Brady
Louis D. Brandeis Professor of Law
Harvard Law

Andrew Gold
Professor of Law
Brooklyn Law

John Goldberg
Interim Dean and Carter Professor of General Jurisprudence
Harvard Law

Felipe Jiménez
Associate Professor of Law and Philosophy
USC Gould School of Law

Larissa Katz
Professor and Canada Research Chair in Private Law Theory and Associate Dean of Graduate Programs
University of Toronto

Paul Miller
Professor of the Practice and Co-Chair for Global Politics and Security Senior Fellow, Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security
Georgetown University

Rebecca Stone
Professor of Law
UCLA

Zoë Sinel
Associate Professor
Western Law

Henry Smith
Fessenden Professor of Law and Director of the Project on the Foundations of Private Law
Harvard Law

Conference Papers

 

Papers can only be accessed with a password. Please click the page above to access the papers.