A Short History of the Restatement of Restitution and Unjust Enrichment

The restitution Restatements are somewhat unusual in that their primary objective has not been to summarize existing doctrine in an elegant way or to call for doctrinal change. Instead, they have offered and defended a significant theoretical insight into the nature of private law: grounds for legal relief between parties include not only tortious harm and contractual obligation but also unjust enrichment of one party at the other’s expense. This chapter examines the history of restitution and unjust enrichment in the United States, the important role that the American Law Institute’s projects played in that history, American responses over time, and reactions by common law courts and scholars around the world.