Common law process is a method for resolving disputes between individuals, relying on reasoned argument from those individual ’ s lawyers as to the scope of their respective rights. It would therefore be surprising if it did not, to some degree at
least, reflect concerns of a type that feature in corrective justice. It would, however, be equally surprising if it did not also reflect wider community concerns. Therefore, what we should expect to see — and, I suggest, we do see if we look — is a system which embodies both public and private concerns. There is much more to say on the balance between public and private, but an argument that seeks to exclude either completely cannot paint a faithful picture of the system as it is.