Review Essay, Diego Zambrano, How Americans Enforce the Law

For the Balkinization symposium on Diego Zambrano, How Americans Enforce the Law (Stanford University Press, 2026).James E. Pfander In How Americans Enforce the Law, Diego Zambrano sets out to document and to explain that distinctively American legal institution: the private lawsuit aimed at the enforcement of public law. In a book length treatment of the subject that combines careful study, elegant theorizing, and inspired description, Zambrano provides an exceptionally readable and engaging account of the history, current practice, and theoretical justification of private litigation. We get both the telling historical tidbit, in Zambrano’s account of the molasses trade in eighteenth century British North America, and the compelling tectonic explanation, in a theory of layered path dependence that helps us to see how we arrived at this point. With its account of laws, lawyers, and civil procedure, the book will appeal to longstanding students and to new initiates seeking a better…