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American Law Institute First Restatement of the Law records
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Biddle Law Library [Contact Us]3460 Chestnut Street, Biddle Law Library, Philadelphia, PA 19104-3406
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Biddle Law Library. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The First Restatement of the Law was the first project of the American Law Institute (ALI). The ALI worked on the first restatement from 1923 to 1944. The project attempted to clarify nine broad subject areas of law: Agency, Conflict of Laws, Contracts, Judgments, Property, Restitution, Security, Torts, and Trusts. Two other subject areas, Business Associations and Sales of Land, were explored but never officially adopted by the ALI. The final draft of the restatement was approved at the ALI Annual meeting in May 1942.
- Agency
- Business Associations
- Conflict of Laws
- Contracts
- Judgments
- Property
- Restitution
- Sales of Land
- Security
- Torts
- Trusts
First shipment received from the American Law Institute in 1995.
Processed by Melissa Backes, 1995-2005.
Reprocessed by Jordon Steele, with assistance from Naureen Hoque and Ryan Gebhardt, December 2006-April 2007.
Encoded by Jordon Steele, May 2008.
EAD Conversion by Emily Johns, 2013.
Subject
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Biddle Law Library
- Finding Aid Author
- Jordon Steele, Leslie O'Neill, Emily Johns (2008); Abigail Boyer (2023)
- Finding Aid Date
- 2008; revised 2023
- Access Restrictions
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None.
- Use Restrictions
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The archives reserves the right to restrict access to materials of sensitive nature. Please contact the department for further information.
Collection Inventory
Drafts, state annotations, publications, and other materials related to topics including creation of relationship, creation and interpretation of authority and apparent authority, interpretation of particular authorization, ratification, termination, liability of principal to third persons, contracts and conveyances, liability of principal to third person regarding torts and notice through agent, liability of agent to third person, liability of third person to agent, duties and liabilities of agent to principal, and duties and liabilities of principal to agent. Reporters who worked on this subject included Floyd Mecham, and William Draper Lewis. Herbert Goodrich served as adviser to the committee.
Drafts, research questions, correspondence, publications, and other records related to this project, which began as a codification effort but was discontinued by the project's reporter, William Draper Lewis, due to Lewis' workload involving other projects. The ALI returned to the subject of business associations in the 1980s with the Principles Corporate Governance project.
See Principals of Corporate Governance Records, ALI.024.
Drafts, state annotations, student editions, and publications related to topics including formation of contracts, formation of informal contracts, informal contracts without assent or consideration, contracts under seal, duties and rights where more persons than one are promisers or promisees of the same performance, contractual rights of persons not parties to the contract, assignment of rights and delegation of duties or conditions, the statute of frauds, breach of promise as an excuse for failure to perform a return promise, breach of contract, judicial remedies for breach of contract, discharge of contracts, impossibility, fraud and misrepresentation, duress and undue influence, mistake, and illegal bargains. Reporters and other participants for this subject include Samuel Williston, Herman Oliphant, Victor Morawetz, and Arthur Corbin.
Conference meeting minutes, drafts, state annotations, student editions, annotators' editions, and correspondence related to topics including validity of judgment, former adjudication, effect of judgment with reference to persons, and equitable relief. Reporters for this subject include Austin W. Scott, Warren A. Seavey.
Meeting minutes, drafts, memoranda, state annotations, annotators' editions, correspondence, publications, and other material related to topics including freehold estates, future interests, and servitudes. Reporters and other participants for this subject include Harry A. Bigelow, Richard R. Powell, W. Barton Leach, A. James Casner, Oliver S. Rundell, Henry Upson Sims, Julian S. Bush, Everett Fraser, Sam Miller, Mary Eschweiler, David K. Kadane, Donald L. McCaskey, Joseph B. Robinson, Sylvia Livingston, Helen S. Chait, Charles E. Clark, Ralph W. Aigler, and Roland R. Foulke.
Meeting minutes, drafts, state annotations, annotators' editions, and publications related to topics including quasi contractual and kindred equitable relief, and constructive trusts and analogous equitable remedies. Reporters for this subject include Warren A. Seavey, William E. McCurdy, and Austin W. Scott.
Tentative Draft for this short-lived Restatement project, which considered topics including requirements for an enforceable contract for the sale of land and contractual obligations of vendor and purchaser under a land contract. The reporter for the project was Samuel Williston. The project was discontinued in 1936, partly over a lack of funding due to the Depression.
Meeting minutes, drafts, comments, state annotations, annotators' editions, correspondence, and publications related to topics including personal property as security, liens, suretyship, and courtesyship. Reporters and other participants for this subject include John Hanna, Louis B. Ewbank, Rollin M. Perkins, and Gerhart Husserl.
Meeting minutes, drafts, state annotations, annotators' editions, student editions, and related records regarding topics including intentional harms to persons, land, and chattels; negligence; absolute liability; deceit; defamation; disparagement; unjustifiable litigation; interference in domestic relations; interference with business relations; invasions of interests in land other than by trespass; miscellaneous rules; defenses applicable to all tort claims; and remedies. Reporters and other participants for this subject include Francis H. Bohlen, Edward S. Thurston, Oliver W. Branch, Fowler V. Harper, Harry Shulman, Everett Fraser, Edgar N. Durfee, Warren A. Seavey, Lawrence H. Eldredge, and Maurice T. Van Hecke.