The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860

Morton J. Horwitz

  • 1976 Thomas J. Wilson Prize of Harvard University Press

Introduction

1. The Emergence of an Instrumental Conception of Law

2. The Transformation in the Conception of Property

3. Subsidization of Economic Growth through the Legal System

4. Competition and Economic Development

5. The Relation between the Bar and Commercial Interests

6. The Triumph of Contract

The Equitable Conception of Contract in the Eighteenth Century

The Rise of a Market Economy and the Development of the Will Theory of Contract

Custom and Contract

Tort and Contract

7. The Development of Commercial Law

The Rise of Negotiability

The Law of Insurance: The Development of Actuarial Conceptions of Risk

Usury

Swift v. Tyson: The Rise of a General Commercial Law

8. The Rise of Legal Formalism

Notes

Index

  • Cover: The Transformation of American Law, 1780-1860

Morton J. Horwitz is a graduate of City College of New York and received a doctorate in Government and a law degree from Harvard University. Author of numerous articles in law and history, Mr. Horwitz is Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School, where he teaches legal history.