The publication of the Restatement of the Law Third, Restitution and Unjust Enrichment (“R3RUE”) is an outstanding achievement in the study of private law. Seventy-five years after the original Restatement of the Law, Restitution was published, and almost 30 years after the Restatement Second, Restitution was abandoned following only two tentative drafts, R3RUE is the culmination of a 15-year project headed by reporter Professor Andrew Kull with the support of over 200 advisers and consultative group members drawn from across the United States and many other parts of the world. Its unveiling has been accompanied by an appropriate level of fanfare. Several conferences and symposia have already been held in the United States and abroad to mark and discuss R3RUE. Indeed, well before its official publication, musing and discussion of R3RUE had occupied the attention of many. And, at over 1300 pages across two volumes, there can be no doubt that it will continue to occupy attention for many years to come.

For lawyers educated and trained outside the United States, the idea of the American Law Institute’s Restatements of the Law may at first be difficult to grasp. The Institute’s Charter records its objects as “educational, and are to promote the clarification and simplification of the law and its better adaptation to social needs, to secure the better administration of justice, and to encourage and carry on scholarly and scientific legal work”. These are overwhelmingly important goals in the context of a domestic legal system comprising over 50 different jurisdictions: uncertainty, complexity, and disagreement with respect to fundamental principles of law are to be expected as a matter of course. The Institute therefore drafts, discusses, revises and publishes the Restatements (as well as model statutes and principles of law), which are influential among all facets of legal practice and scholarship not just within the United States but also overseas. Indeed, there is perhaps no better example of this influence than the original Restatement of the Law, Restitution. That work, authored by Harvard Professors Warren A. Seavey and Austin W. Scott, is widely credited as the seminal text responsible for raising restitution and unjust enrichment as distinct bodies of law and principle to be received throughout the common law world. R3RUE is proof of its continuing effects.

The format and presentation of R3RUE is typical of the Restatement series. Principles of law are organised under broad chapter and topic headings, and are presented as standalone sections followed by comments and reporter’s notes. The comments include multiple illustrations, of varying complexity, applying the relevant principles to a set of facts (in most instances based upon actual decided cases) and discussing the appropriate outcome. The result is a thorough and highly informative analysis of the law that is also very accessible.

It is impossible to summarise or comment upon the entirety of R3RUE’s content in the space of a short review. Indeed, the girth and purpose of R3RUE mean it probably defies any attempt at singular analysis. One can be certain that, in time, lawyers from across the profession and academia will pick across and critically analyse individual parts of it in greater detail. For present purposes, however, only two general observations need be made.