Formalism and Realism in Private Law

This chapter examines the benefits and drawbacks of determinate rules in private law: rules provide settlement and support coordination, at the cost of some undesirable results in particular cases. It also traces the traditional methods used in equity to soften the adverse consequences of enforcing rules. It compares, and finds misguided, the dismissive attitude that many American Legal Realists adopted toward rules. It concludes, however, that the damage done to the artificial but useful law/equity divide may be irrevocable