Tort Law for Federalists(and the Rest of Us) Private law in disguise John C P Gold Vanderbilt law school (Forthcoming, 28 Harv. J. L& Pub. Policy_(2004)) Abstract This essay argues in favor of understanding tort law as a law of private redress, rather than public regulatory law. Part I uses the U. S. Supreme Court's 2003 decision on punitive damages in State Farm Mut. Ins CO. l: Campbell to demonstrate some of the with formalist reasoning, an elevation of common law over statute, or political conservatism