American Law Institute

The American Law Institute (ALI) was traditionally an independent, scholarly institution but now participates more in advocacy, proposing novel liability expansion.

The Problem

The American Law Institute (ALI) was traditionally an independent, scholarly institution but now participates more in advocacy, proposing novel liability expansion.

The ALI has proposed numerous restatements in recent years that go beyond simply restating an established area of common law but instead proposing rules to advance particular policy agendas.

Recent problematic proposed restatements include:
– Restatement of the Law, Consumer Contracts
– Restatement of Torts, Third: Concluding Provisions

ATRA’s Position

ALI’s mission appears to have shifted over the past decade from that of a scholarly institution that was safely above the fray in broader policy disputes, to that of an advocacy group proposing novel expansions in liability law.

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American Law Institute News and Press

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Trial Lawyers Just Rewrote Centuries-old Contract Law

This op-ed was originally published by the Washington Examiner. ...

Controversial Restatement Adopted by American Law Institute

Today, during its annual meeting, the American Law Institute (ALI) voted t...

ALI Oversteps With Expansive Restatement Of Contract Law

This op-ed was originally published by Law360. Once considered...

Search Resources

Search through all of ATRA's Amicus Briefs, Reports, and Other Resources around American Law Institute
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States
Status
Post Types
Date
Suquilanda v. Skyway Roofing, Inc.
(Ma., filed March 18, 2026): Urging the court to decline to recognize a new cause of action permitting employees of a subcontractor to sue a contract...
Massachusetts
  • Case Not Yet Decided iconCase Not Yet Decided
Letter Urging Veto or Amendments to House Bill 449 / Senate Bill 229 in Virginia
...
Virginia
Corporate Flight from Delaware: The Impact of Escalating Shareholder Litigation and Legal Uncertainty
Unpredictable court rulings and a wave of lawyer-driven, profit-seeking litigation are destabilizing Delaware’s historic dominance for corporat...
Delaware
New York Local Legal Services Advertising 2024-2025
Trial lawyers and aggregators increasingly spend large sums of money on television, digital, and print advertising to recruit new clients. In 2025, i...
New York
Murphy v. Rio Rancho Center
(New Mex. Ct. App., filed March 5, 2026): Arguing that the double-digit punitive multipliers likely violate due process. The U.S. Supreme Court has s...
New Mexico
  • Case Not Yet Decided iconCase Not Yet Decided
Monsanto v. Durnell
(U.S., filed March 2, 2026): Arguing that requirements for herbicide labeling should not be made case-by-case in litigation sparked by a flawed IARC ...
SCOTUS
  • Court Ruled in Favor of ATRA's Position iconCourt Ruled in Favor of ATRA's Position
Cowan v. Dr. Slann et.al.
(N.D., filed February 23, 2026): Arguing that reasonable limits on medical liability improve the health care system for doctors and patients and Nort...
North Dakota
  • Case Not Yet Decided iconCase Not Yet Decided
Oregon Local Legal Services Advertising 2021-2025
Trial lawyers and aggregators increasingly spend large sums of money on television, digital,and print advertising to recruit new clients. In 2025, it...
Oregon
The Junk Science Playbook
The Machine That Sparks and Supports Mass Tort Litigation Introduction and Executive Summary Mass tort litigation is a sprawling, profit-driven...
Bio-Lab, Inc. v. Fannie Tartt et al.
(GA, filed January 20, 2026): Arguing that traditional tort law and persuasive decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous state high courts do ...
Georgia
  • Case Not Yet Decided iconCase Not Yet Decided



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