Resolving disputes through law, not ‘baseball bat’
People are rightfully concerned about what happens in public law — how and when governments exercise power. But lawyers working in private law areas — such as property, contracts, torts, corporations, and family law — also play a critical role in securing rights and the integrity of our legal system, according to Robert H. Sitkoff, the Austin Wakeman Scott Professor of Law and John L. Gray Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.
“On a retail level, equally if not more corrosive to a democratic republic’s rule of law is a failure of private law to achieve the private ordering that people are seeking when someone thinks they’ve got a deal and they don’t,” said Sitkoff on March 30.
Sitkoff’s remarks came as part of his Last Lecture to the Class of 2026 — a tradition in which Harvard Law faculty offer parting words of wisdom and advice to graduating students.
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