The aim of this edited collection of essays is to examine the relationship between private law and power - both the public power of the state and the 'private' power of institutions and individuals. It describes and critically assesses the way that private law doctrines, institutions, processes and rules express, moderate, facilitate and control relationships of power. The various chapters of this work examine the dynamics of the relationship between private law and power from a number of different perspectives - historical, theoretical, doctrinal and comparative. They have been commissioned from leading experts in the field of private law, from several different Commonwealth Jurisdictions (Australia, the UK, Canada and New Zealand), each with expertise in the particular sphere of their contribution. They aim to illuminate the past and assist in resolving some contemporary, difficult legal issues relating to the shape, scope and content of private law and its difficult relationship with power.

Part 1: Issues1. The Dynamics of Private Law and Power Kit Barker Part 2: Power, History and Society2. Power, History and the Law of Contract in Eighteenth Century England Warren Swain3. Redressing Inequality in Personal Credit Transactions: 1700-1974 Karen Fairweather4. Tort Law and Government Liability in the Administrative State Peter Cane Part 3: Doctrines, Institutions and Process5. Property and Power: The Judicial Redistribution of Proprietary Rights Craig Rotherham6. Trustees' Powers and Social Justice Matthew Harding7. Undue Infl uence and the Spiritual Economy Simone Degeling8. A Public Law Tort: Understanding Misfeasance in Public Office Donal Nolan9. Public Power, Discretion and the Duty of Care Kit Barker10. The Legitimacy of the Company as a Source of (Private) Power Ross Grantham11. Reshaping Responsibility: The Emerging Private Law of Institutional Wrongs Mayo Moran12. Class Actions: Uses and Abuses of the Process of Courts Justice Philip McMurdo