Unmaking Law: The Conservative Campaign to Roll Back the Common Law - Tapa dura

How the Right is subverting the legal protections of consumers, workers, injury victims, and the environment

There is an undercover war going on in America that impacts everyone’s life far more than has been reported. The Conservative movement has been systematically turning back a century’s worth of liberal gains and protections found in the common law—the areas of law that affect most of the everyday activities of ordinary people.

Throughout the twentieth century, contract, property, and personal injury law evolved to take more account of social condition and the less powerful members of American society. Contracts were interpreted in light of common sense, property ownership was subjected to reasonable-use provisions, and consumers were protected against dangerous products.

But all that is changing. Conservatives have a clear agenda to turn back the clock on the common law to increase the rights of big business. Some significant inroads have already protected gun manufacturers from lawsuits and hampered the government’s protection of the environment, for example; more rollbacks are on the horizon.

Although this aspect of the Conservative agenda is not as visible as assaults on abortion rights and civil liberties, it may ultimately have even greater impact on our society. Jay M. Feinman’s book is an accessible, eye-opening primer, full of vivid examples and case histories. It should be an important new issue in the election debates, and in our thinking about a just American society.

Jay M. Feinman is Distinguished Professor of Law at Rutgers University School of Law, Camden.