Restatements of the Law Restatements of the Law

Restatements of the Law

Restatements of the Law • Restatements of the Law are written by prominent legal scholars. • Restatements must be formally adopted by the members of the American Law Institute. • Restatements are the attempt of the American Law Institute to clarify the ever-increasing amount and complexity of case law by clear, concise restatements. • More than any other secondary source, Restatements are often accepted by the courts as persuasive authority.

Comments • Restatements are divided into chapters, then into narrower titles, and then into numbered sections. • Each section begins with a “blackletter” statement of the law. • The blackletter statement covers a fairly broad issue. • Sub-issues are often discussed in the author’s Comments and Illustrations that follow each statement. These comments and illustrations are often cited by the courts.

Current Restatements include • Agency (Second) • Apportionment of Liability (Third) • Conflict of Law (Second) • Contracts (Second) • Foreign Relations (Third) • Judgments (Second) • Law Governing Lawyers (Third) • Products Liability (Third) • Property (Third) • • Prudent Investor Rule (Third) Restitution (First) Security (First) Suretyship and Guaranty (Third) Torts (Second) Trusts (Second) Unfair Competition (Third) Wills and Donative Transfers (Third)

• Features of the Restatements include 1 – Appendix volumes • Instead of citing relevant cases, appendix volumes contain summaries of cases that have cited each section of the Restatement. – Indexes • Restatement, First Series, has a one-volume index to all Restatements. • Restatements, Second and Third Series, do not have a comprehensive index. – Some have subject index for each volume. – Recent Restatements have an index in the last volume or in a separate volume. – 1 Features vary by series and by volume.

Features (continued) – Reporter’s Notes are at the end of each section or in the Appendix volumes of the agency, torts, and trust restatements. – Recent volumes have cross-references to the West Key Number System® and ALR annotations. • Updating Restatements – Drafts of new series are published in soft-cover format – Cumulative annual supplements – Interim case citation pamphlet – Pocket parts

Restatement databases on Westlaw are – – – – REST – all Restatements of the Law REST-AGEN – Agency REST-CONFL – Conflict of Laws REST-CONTR – Contract Restatement REST-FOREL – The Foreign Relations Law of the United States REST-JUDG – Judgments REST-LGOVL – Law Governing Lawyers PL-REST – Product Liability REST-PROP – Property REST-RESTI – Restitution REST-SEC – Security and Suretyship and Guaranty REST-TORT – Torts REST-TRUST–Trusts REST-UNCOM – Unfair Competition

TOC • Online documents contain the text, comments, and illustrations of the Restatement, Case Citations to Restatements, Reporter’s Notes and Cross References. • A Table of Contents link on the Links for tab opens the Table of Contents for the Restatement at the Restatement section being displayed. • Drafts of future series are included in the databases. • Database: REST-TORT Search: dram-shop /p “social host” /s liab!