Restitution: Civil Liability for Unjust Enrichment

I just finished Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric--also a great book--and I got an email reminder from Amazon that I could write a review of this one. I bought the book on the strength of Farnsworth's guest blogging at Volokh Conspiracy, and was glad I did. Before encountering the blog posts and the book, I would have said that restitution was merely a kind of remedy, occasionally useful in contract disputes and even more rarely in tort cases of conversion. As Farnsworth points out, that is one way that the term "restitution" is used. But that is not the point of the book. Instead, it turns out that the restitution that the book is about is a whole separate category of causes of action on a par with torts and contracts. It turns out I had encountered restitution in this sense in law school classes on torts and on contracts, where there were glances at "unjust enrichment" and "quasi-contract" and "promissory estoppel", but with no comprehensive treatment, or even any recognition that it might be possible to discuss restitution as anything other than a kind of exception to the normal proper way of doing things. As with the Rhetoric book, this one on Restitution divides the subject matter into categories based on the intended effect to be achieved; illustrated with plenty of examples.

Although I am not a lawyer, I am so glad that Mr. Farnsworth wrote this book. Other texts are very philosophical; this book is filled with practical examples illuminating a wide variety of transactions. I literally could not put it down! The legal cases brought in were very apropos. There is a lot of depth here; it will be worth reading & re-reading. Thank you Mr. Farnsworth!

Very comprehensive and highly readable on a complex area of the law.