Principles of the Law

Principles of the Law focus on legal areas the American Law Institute believes need reform. Each legal area is subject to a thorough examination and analysis. The final publication typically recommends changes to the law.

In the late 1970s, ALI began investigating the area of Corporate Governance. This project sought to "determine and summarize existing law" as well as "to evolve analytical precepts and to make recommendations" (Roswell B. Perkins, The Genesis and Goals of the ALI Corporate Governance Project 21 (1986)). To date, nine Principles of the Law have been completed:

• Corporate Governance (1994)
• Family Dissolution: Analysis and Recommendations (2002)
• Transnational Insolvency Project (2003 & 2012)
• Transnational Civil Procedure (2006 - a joint project with UNIDROIT)
• Intellectual Property: Principles Governing Jurisdiction, Choice of Law, and Judgments in Transnational Disputes (2008)
• Aggregate Litigation (2010)
• Software Contracts (2010)
• Election Administration: Non-Precinct Voting and Resolution of Ballot-Counting Disputes (2019)
• Data Privacy (2020)

ALI continues to work on the Principles of the Law. For a full list of current projects, see www.ali.org.

Not all projects have been completed. See HeinOnline's American Law Institute Library for a list of Principle projects and drafts.