Reasonable Persons in Private Law

Abstract

The reasonable person is a central character in Anglo-American law. Although often introduced through examples, such as “the man on the Clapham Omnibus,” the reasonable person enters legal analysis not as a cultural stereotype, but as an embodiment of an idea of fair terms of interaction. Fair terms of interaction must allow people freedom to do as they please, but also make sure that each is secure from the activities of others. A world in which liberty alone is protected is one in which nobody is secure from the acts of others; a world in which security alone is protected is a world in which nobody is free to act for fear of injuring others. Instead of either of these extremes, legal institutions protect people equally from each other when they require each to sacrifice some liberty for the sake of the security of other.