In his preface to this thoroughly updated book, the author observes that the restitution wars have continued unabated since the publication of the second edition of this work in 2017. The author demonstrates that the law of restitution constitutes a variety of fundamentally distinct gap-filling principles, which cannot be forced into a single and uniform principle such as “unjust enrichment at the plaintiff’s expense”. The results of the attempt to do so are uncertainty and unpredictability, misuse of ordinary and legal language, the creation of new legal fictions, strained reasoning that treats disparate cases as though they were alike, and an abandonment of the inductive empiricism of the common law. Thomas Prince observed of the second edition in Bar News that “[t]he book is well written and easy to read … it is an insightful and intelligent work that is essential reading for those interested in the law of restitution.” Moreover, the historically informed rigour of Jackman’s analysis will deepen any reader’s understanding of the method of doctrinal development under the common law. The Varieties of Restitution is an invaluable resource for all those who seek to understand, or who need to apply, the laws of restitution.
