Lawyers have long distinguished private and public law.  The former concerns the rights and duties of private persons and is studied in courses like contracts and torts. The latter concerns the powers and responsibilities of the state. Constitutional law, then, is supposed to be public law. But it turns out that much of constitutional law is less like public law and more like private law: it imposes relational obligations on government officials backed by the threat of monetary damages. What does constitutional private law tell us about constitutional law and its relationship to politics and philosophy?

Garrett West is an Associate Professor of Law at Yale Law School. His scholarship focuses on the uses of private law theory in public law and on the problems of constitutional interpretation and doctrinal coherence through constitutional change. West received a J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as an Articles and Essays Editor on the Yale Law Journal, and a B.A. from Hillsdale College. After graduating from Yale, West practiced appellate litigation in Washington, D.C., and clerked for Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain, Judge Thomas Griffith, and Justice Samuel Alito.

Supported by the Bouton Law Lecture Fund.

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