Against Relational Justice

Abstract In Relational Justice , Hanoch Dagan and Avihay Dorfman defend a longstanding intuition of bilateral normativity. They argue that private law, for the most part, should structure legal relationships so that parties show reciprocal respect for each other’s self-determination and substantive equality. In this critical notice, I argue against the plausibility of their account. My main claim is that a commitment to individual self-determination and substantive equality should be societal and not bilateral. Rather than reciprocal respect for each other’s self-determination and equality within bilateral relationships, those who care about these values should require that private law help secure them on a societal scale.