Restatement of the Law: ALI Common Law Guide

A Restatement of the Law is a series of highly authoritative legal treatises published by the American Law Institute (ALI) that systematically clarify, organize, and synthesize the principles of American common law. Authored by committees of distinguished legal scholars, judges, and practitioners, Restatements articulate governing doctrines across core legal subjects, including contracts, torts, property, and conflict of laws. Within academic scholarship and the broader discipline of legal studies, Restatements serve as standard references for analyzing doctrinal trends, judicial consensus, and common-law evolution across state and federal jurisdictions.

What it is

In American jurisprudence, a “restatement” denotes a comprehensive, systematic codification of prevailing judge-made common law into structured rules and analytical commentary. Unlike statutory codes enacted by state legislatures or federal statutes passed by Congress, Restatements do not possess independent statutory authority and are classified as secondary legal sources. However, because of their rigorous drafting methodology and prestige, Restatements carry extraordinary persuasive authority in state and federal courts. When state supreme courts encounter novel legal disputes, ambiguous precedents, or split authorities across sister jurisdictions, judges frequently adopt specific provisions of a Restatement as the binding common law of that state. Researchers examine Restatements to evaluate both established doctrine (the consensus majority rule) and normative reform proposals that reflect modern judicial trends.

Who runs it and what it covers

Restatements of the Law are created, revised, and published exclusively by the American Law Institute (ALI), an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established in 1923 following a landmark report by the Committee on the Establishment of a Permanent Organization for the Improvement of the Law. The Institute was founded to remedy two fundamental defects in the American legal system: persistent uncertainty and excessive complexity resulting from thousands of uncoordinated judicial decisions. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the ALI encompasses elected members including leading legal scholars, federal and state appellate judges, and experienced practitioners.

Each Restatement project typically spans five to ten years and is organized into four distinct analytical components:

Black Letter: The governing legal rule, definition, or doctrinal principle, printed in boldface type. This text represents the formal statement of law approved by both the ALI Council and the full Institute membership.
Comments: Detailed explanatory notes authored by the Reporters and formally approved by the Institute. Comments analyze the scope, historical rationale, policy objectives, and practical application of the black-letter rule.
Illustrations: Hypothetical factual scenarios embedded directly within or following the Comments to demonstrate how courts should apply the rule across concrete factual circumstances. These are also formally voted on and approved by the Institute.
Reporter’s Notes: In-depth scholarly essays, statutory citations, and state-by-state case law surveys compiled by the project Reporters. Unlike the Black Letter, Comments, and Illustrations, the Reporter’s Notes represent the independent scholarly analysis of the individual authors and do not constitute official Institute policy.

The ALI has developed four successive generations of Restatements across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries:

First Restatements (1923–1944): Addressed foundational subjects including Contracts (led by Samuel Williston), Torts, Agency, Conflict of Laws, Property, Restitution, Security, and Trusts.
Restatement of the Law Second (1952–1979): Substantially revised earlier subjects to reflect mid-twentieth-century developments, producing influential works such as the Restatement (Second) of Contracts and Restatement (Second) of Torts (notably Section 402A on strict products liability).
Restatement of the Law Third (1986–Present): Introduced modular subject expansions, including the Law Governing Lawyers, Unfair Competition, Restitution and Unjust Enrichment, Suretyship and Guaranty, and specialized Torts divisions (Products Liability, Apportionment of Liability, and Physical and Emotional Harm).
Restatement of the Law Fourth (Ongoing): Features modern projects synthesizing complex inter-jurisdictional areas, including the Foreign Relations Law of the United States.

How to search or use it

Legal researchers, law review authors adhering to scholarly authorship standards, and empirical scholars navigate Restatements through five primary research workflows documented across law library finding aids and official vendor platforms:

Locating the Current Edition and Subject: Determine whether the research topic is governed by a First, Second, Third, or Fourth Restatement. Check the official American Law Institute publications directory to confirm whether a subject has been superseded by a subsequent Restatement generation or remains active under an earlier edition.
Consulting the Black-Letter Table of Contents: Begin research by scanning the structural outline and chapter headings to locate the specific section governing the legal issue (such as Section 90 for promissory estoppel in Contracts, or Section 6 for choice-of-law principles in Conflict of Laws).
Analyzing the Black Letter, Comments, and Illustrations: Read the black-letter text alongside the official Comments to understand the Institute’s formulation of the doctrine. Examine the Illustrations to identify which factual variables trigger or defeat liability under the rule.
Reviewing the Reporter’s Notes for Jurisdictional Authority: Examine the Reporter’s Notes following the section to identify the primary case law precedents that established the rule. Researchers tracking open-access opinions can cross-reference these citations in public databases like CourtListener to retrieve unabridged judicial texts.
Accessing Electronic Databases and Citing Provisions: Retrieve electronic Restatement texts through licensed legal databases including HeinOnline, LexisNexis, Westlaw, West Academic, and Bloomberg Law. When citing provisions in scholarly articles or legal briefs, use standard Bluebook format specifying the subject, edition, section number, and year of publication.

Strengths and limits

Evaluating Restatements within academic and practice contexts requires understanding both their institutional strengths and their methodological limitations:

Strengths:
- Unrivaled persuasive authority among American judicial secondary sources, cited hundreds of thousands of times in reported appellate decisions.
- Exhaustive deliberative vetting through multi-stage reviews involving prominent legal scholars, judges, advisers, and members consultative groups.
- Synthesizes divergent jurisdictional rules into clear, structured principles, significantly reducing research friction when evaluating multi-state common-law doctrines.
- Provides clear hypothetical illustrations that assist researchers in delineating rule boundaries and exceptions.
Limits:
- Non-binding by nature: a Restatement provision has no legal force in a given jurisdiction until a state legislature enacts it or the state’s highest court expressly adopts it.
- Tension between descriptive restatement (articulating the existing consensus rule) and normative law reform (advocating what the authors believe the law ought to be), which has drawn scrutiny in controversial doctrinal areas.
- Multi-year drafting cycles mean that rapid technological or statutory developments may outpace published volumes until new project divisions are commissioned.
- Full electronic access to complete Restatement texts requires institutional database subscriptions, though preliminary drafts and summaries are shared across scholarly repositories like SSRN and legal preprint networks.

Alternatives

The following table contrasts Restatements of the Law with alternative secondary and model legal authorities utilized across research and practice:

Authority Type	Sponsoring Body	Primary Focus & Format	Binding Status & Legal Weight
Restatements of the Law	American Law Institute (ALI)	Synthesis of common-law doctrine structured into black letter, comments, illustrations, and reporter’s notes.	Secondary persuasive authority; binding only when formally adopted by a court.
Model Codes (e.g., Model Penal Code)	American Law Institute (ALI)	Comprehensive statutory blueprints designed for legislative enactment rather than judicial common-law synthesis.	Advisory model legislation; binding only when enacted as a statute by a legislature.
Uniform Acts (e.g., UCC)	Uniform Law Commission (ULC) / ALI	Proposed statutory texts intended to create uniform legislation across all fifty states.	Statutory model; binding as positive law only after adoption by a state legislature.
Scholarly Treatises	Academic Authors (e.g., Prosser, Williston)	Multi-volume analytical commentary on specific legal subjects offering individual critical commentary.	Secondary authority; persuasive based solely on the scholar’s professional reputation.
Legal Encyclopedias (Am Jur 2d, C.J.S.)	Commercial Legal Publishers	Broad, descriptive summaries of broad legal topics accompanied by exhaustive footnotes citing case law.	Secondary reference tool; lower persuasive weight than Restatements in judicial citations.

FAQ

What is the meaning of restatement in law?

In law, a restatement is a systematic, authoritative compilation that summarizes, clarifies, and organizes the common-law rules established by court decisions in a particular subject area into clear, numbered principles called black-letter rules.

Where can you find Restatements of the Law?

Restatements of the Law can be accessed through licensed legal research databases including HeinOnline, LexisNexis, Westlaw, West Academic, and Bloomberg Law. Official print volumes and ebooks are distributed through LexisNexis, and major university law libraries maintain complete print collections.

Which group wrote the Restatement of the Law of Contracts?

The Restatement of Contracts was drafted and published by the American Law Institute (ALI), an organization composed of prominent legal scholars, judges, and practicing lawyers. The first edition was led by Harvard Law School professor Samuel Williston as Chief Reporter.

What is a Conflict of Laws in the Restatements?

Conflict of Laws (also known as private international law or choice of law) is the subject within the Restatements that addresses which jurisdiction’s law applies when a dispute involves events, parties, or property across multiple states or nations. The Restatement (Second) of Conflict of Laws, published by the ALI, introduced the influential “most significant relationship” standard widely applied by American courts.

What is the Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers?

The Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers (part of the Restatement Third series) is an ALI publication that articulates the legal duties, civil liability, professional privileges, and ethical responsibilities governing attorneys in their relationships with clients, courts, and third parties.

Sources

American Law Institute. “About The American Law Institute.” Published by American Law Institute, 2026. Read November 7, 2026. https://www.ali.org/about-ali/
American Law Institute. “ALI Publications Directory and Electronic Access.” Published by American Law Institute, 2026. Read November 7, 2026. https://www.ali.org/publications/
Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School. “Restatement of the Law.” Wex Legal Dictionary and Encyclopedia. Published by LII, 2025. Read November 7, 2026. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/restatement_of_the_law