Waddams sets forth many reasons for what he refers to as the failure of "mapping"of private law. For example, he points out that, as circumstances change, judges must make decisions outside of existing frameworks. Further, Waddams explains that the historical division of courts of law and equity, with equitable concepts"cut[ing] across legal categories, "7 contributes to the laws conceptual disunity. In addition, he sees that courts exercise judgment in selecting relevant facts, that"[n]o map or scheme could possibly classify all imaginable facts, and that facts influence the formulation of rules In light of these and other reasons waddams believes efforts to simplify and clarify private law by categorizing or mapping the law generally backfire, only"distort[ing] an understanding " of the law Dimensions of private Lan is an excellent book. Waddams selects interesting and important examples from a wide array of legal decisions, helpfully collects them under chapter headings such as economic harms, physical harms, reliance, and so on, usefully points out the panoply of legal concepts and principles constituting the solutions to these issues, and generally convinces the reader of the many dimensions of private law. I confess that I am not a disinterested observer of Waddams'thesis, having weighed in myself on the combination of legal principles and theories that constitute contract law. I concluded that t]he various norms of contract law reflect the major social, economic, and institutional forces of a pluralistic societ TT]here is no consensus on what is to be mapped(facts, cases, issues, rules, reasons, categories, or concepts), on what is to be located on the map when drawn, or on whether the map is governed by the shape of the terrain, or vice versa. " Id. at 3 6 Id. at 132 Waddams sets forth many reasons for what he refers to as the failure of "mapping" of private law.5 For example, he points out that, as circumstances change, judges must make decisions outside of existing frameworks.6 Further, Waddams explains that the historical division of courts of law and equity, with equitable concepts “cut[ing] across legal categories,”7 contributes to the law's conceptual disunity. In addition, he sees that courts exercise judgment in selecting relevant facts, that "[n]o map or scheme could possibly classify all imaginable facts," and that facts influence the formulation of rules.8 In light of these and other reasons, Waddams believes efforts to simplify and clarify private law by categorizing or mapping the law generally backfire, only “distort[ing] an understanding” of the law.9 Dimensions of Private Law is an excellent book. Waddams selects interesting and important examples from a wide array of legal decisions, helpfully collects them under chapter headings such as economic harms, physical harms, reliance, and so on, usefully points out the panoply of legal concepts and principles constituting the solutions to these issues, and generally convinces the reader of the many dimensions of private law. I confess that I am not a disinterested observer of Waddams’ thesis, having weighed in myself on the combination of legal principles and theories that constitute contract law. I concluded that “[t]he various norms of contract law reflect the major social, economic, and institutional forces of a pluralistic society. 5 "[T]here is no consensus on what is to be mapped (facts, cases, issues, rules, reasons, categories, or concepts), on what is to be located on the map when drawn, or on whether the map is governed by the shape of the terrain, or vice versa." Id. at 3. 6 Id. at 13. 7 Id. 8 Id. at 14. 9 Id. at 226