The book provides a critical analysis of electronic alternatives to documents used in the international sale of goods carried by sea, including invoices, bills of lading, certificates of insurance, as well as other documentation required under documentary credits, and payment processing arrangements. It constitutes an in-depth discussion of their legal status and the practices relating to their use. The new edition examines recent developments in the evolving digital transformation that is taking place in the field of international trade. The book examines the commercial pressure to move from paper to electronic data, and the new technologies and relationships built for this purpose. This transition is ever evolving and as such an understanding of the attendant legal implications of the change is crucial. Analysis is provided on the adoption by UNCITRAL of its Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records, the author having been involved first hand in its drafting as a delegate and observer in UNCITRAL Working Group IV, and on the Uniform Rules on Bank Payment Obligations (URBPO). The book considers the practical workings and legal underpinnings of new electronic bill of lading platforms such as e-Title and Placing Platform Limited and of pilot projects such as Wave BL, Marco Polo and Voltron. It also examines the legal implications of proposed uses of new technologies such as distributed ledger technologies (DLT) (including blockchain), Internet of Things (IoT) and smart contracts. This book provides a complete and practical analysis of e-documents in cross-border business contracts for goods carried by sea. It examines recent trends in practice and assesses the ability of electronic alternatives to achieve legal functions performed by the paper documents they replace.

With the increasing importance of the concept of remedies in European private law, this book focuses on remedies as a distinctive and novel field of European legal research. It considers the common law tradition (England and Wales), as well as the civil law viewpoint (on the example of Germany), making the case for a European law of remedies. It is argued that 'remedies' are an enforcement tool influencing the scope of substantive rights. In doing so, the book analyses different mechanisms of enforcement, including the debate on private versus public enforcement as well as the perspective of criminal law. The enforcement of rights is understood as an intradisciplinary task. Remedial law is, however, distinct from procedural law, as well as from substantive law in a narrow sense. Subsequent to defining the scope of a law of remedies, this book analyses several underlying principles and common themes. For example, the proportionality test is presented as fundamental principle in European remedial law. The value gained by identifying common ground is e. g. illustrated with respect to damages in European Private Law. Especially in IP law, in turn, the CJEU rulings and secondary European legislation confirm the importance of proportionate remedies. Moreover, within the law of remedies the function of each remedy can be analysed, and respective interests can be balanced. Further examples that reveal the importance of a sophisticated enforcement are the CJEU's recent extension of the concept of communication to the public, the notice-and-take-down-procedure in intermediary liability cases and remedies for non-conformity of digital content or consumers' remedies in European contract law. In German patent law, the development of grace periods and shareholders rights in German corporate law can be analysed from a "remedy" perspective as well. Overall, this book demonstrates that remedies are more than just an addendum and innovatively presents an emerging research area. As such, it is of great relevance to all lawyers concerned with questions surrounding the enforcement of rights: international academics as well as practitioners.

This collection of essays interrogates significant issues at the forefront of scholarship and legal practice in the field of money remedies in equity. Chapters address the contentious and developing field of equitable compensation, including: the nature of equitable compensation; the relevant causation inquiry for equitable compensation; whether notions of contribution apply to multiple agents; accessorial liability; the role of discretion in limiting equitable compensation; which wrongs yield equitable compensation; and the extent to which compensation in equity differs from money remedies at common law. Other chapters examine the remedy of disgorgement of profit, and specifically the theoretical basis of that remedy, its application in the context of fiduciary obligations, and third-party issues. A number of chapters also examine the interrelationship between loss- and gain-based money relief. In addressing these issues the book includes both doctrinal and theoretical perspectives, and brings together leading equity scholars and judges from across the common law world.

This book is the third in a series of essay collections on defences in private law. It addresses defences to liability arising in contract. The essays range from those adopting a predominantly black-letter approach to others that examine the law from a more theoretical or historical perspective. Some essays focus on individual defences, while others are concerned with the links between defences, or with how defences relate to the structure of contract law generally. One goal of the book is to determine what light can be shed on contract law doctrines by analysing them through the lens of defences. The contributors - judges and academics - are all leading jurists. The essays are addressed to all of the major common law jurisdictions.

This book presents an account of attribution in unjust enrichment. Attribution refers to how and when two parties - a claimant and a defendant - are relevantly connected to each other for unjust enrichment purposes. It is reflected in the familiar expression that a defendant be 'enriched at the claimant's expense'. This book presents a structured account of attribution, consisting of two requirements: first, the identification of an enrichment to the defendant and a loss to the claimant; and, secondly, the identification of a connection between that enrichment and that loss. These two requirements must be kept separate from other considerations often subsumed within the expression 'enrichment at the claimant's expense' which in truth have nothing to do with attribution, and which instead qualify unjust enrichment liability for reasons that should be analysed in their own terms. The structure of attribution so presented fits a normative account of unjust enrichment based upon each party's exchange capacities. A defendant is enriched when he receives something that he has not paid for under prevailing market conditions, while a claimant suffers a loss when he loses the opportunity to charge for something under the same conditions. A counterfactual test - asking whether enrichment and loss arise 'but for' each other - provides the best generalisation for testing whether enrichment and loss are connected, thereby satisfying the requirements of attribution in unjust enrichment.

Over the past two decades, protecting contractual parties' reasonable expectations has incrementally gained judicial recognition in English contract law. In contrast, however, the similar 'doctrine' of 'policyholder's reasonable expectations' has been largely rejected in English insurance law. This is injurious, firstly, to both the consumer and business policyholder's reasonable expectations of coverage of particular risks, and, secondly, to consumer policyholder's reasonable expectations of bonuses in with-profits life insurance. To remedy these problems, this book argues for an incremental but definite acceptance of the conception of policyholder's reasonable expectations in English insurance law. It firstly discusses the homogeneity between insurance law and contract law, as well as the role of (reasonable) expectations and their relevance to the emerging duty of good faith in contract law. Secondly, following a review and re-characterisation of the American insurance law 'doctrine' of reasonable expectations, the book addresses the conventional English objections to the reasonable expectations approach in insurance law. In passing, it also rethinks the approach to the protection of policyholder's reasonable expectations of bonuses in with-profits life insurance through a revisit to the (in)famous case Equitable Life Assurance Society v Hyman [2000] UKHL 39, particularly to its relevant business and regulatory background.

This book provides a comparative study of contract law, examining the interaction of common law and civil law approaches to contract law. Drawing extensively upon English, French and European law, the book explores how the law of contract of Jersey, Channel Islands, has been influenced by both civil law and common law sources. It is argued that this jurisdiction is a striking example of comparative law in action, given that Jersey contract law is made up of a blend of common law and civil law approaches. Jersey law is premised upon a subjective approach to contracts, in which civil law concepts such as cause (rather than consideration) and vices de consentement are the foundational aspects, but is nonetheless highly influenced by the common law in areas such as remedies (damages, termination, etc). The book analyses a series of key issues from a comparative and European perspective, including the principles underlying contract law (comparing and contrasting civil and common law approaches), the formation of contract, requirements of reciprocity (cause vs consideration), the structure and approach of precontractual liability, the role of good faith in a mixed system, the architecture of remedies, and more.

The casebook was designed for four-hour, one-semester courses. It includes introductions that quickly orient students within unfamiliar territories. Cases present both the doctrine applied and, in some instances, the shortcomings of that doctrine. The authors express their disagreement about basic issues, so that students can experience the range of possible views in modern contract law. Contemporary subjects, such as form contracts, the modern concept of unconscionability, the rise of arbitration, and the increasing importance of computers in commercial transactions, are given considerable emphasis.

This second collection of Brian Coote's previously published writings is for the most part a follow-up to his Contract as Assumption (Hart Publishing, 2010). Part of the theme of that collection was that in a bilateral contract the obligations of the parties, both primary and secondary, are those which at formation they have each assumed, that is, have taken upon themselves. Being exchanged at the point of formation, these assumptions constitute the consideration. The institution of contract provides a facility the purpose of which is to enable the parties thereby to bind themselves to legal (contractual) obligation. This emphasis on what happens at formation has prompted the inclusion of several of the papers in this collection. These focus on intention, offer and acceptance, the qualification of primary and secondary obligations whether express or implied, agency, and the effect of illegality on pre-existing rights. Falling outside this group are two pieces respectively on chance and the burden of proof and on impecuniosity, in each case in tort as well as in contract. The collection ends with the author's valedictory lecture, "Contract - an Underview". In this paper, delivered on his retirement from the University of Auckland, he summed up his thinking on Contract. It is now for the first time given general currency.

This book is a study of doctrinal and methodological divergence in the common law of obligations. It explores particular departures from the common law mainstream and the causes and effects of those departures. Some divergences can be justified on the basis of a need to adapt the common law of contract, torts, equity and restitution to local circumstances, or to bring them into conformity with local values. More commonly, however, doctrinal or methodological divergence simply reflects different approaches to common problems, or different views as to what justice or policy requires in particular circumstances. In some instances divergent methodologies lead to substantially the same results, while in others particular causes of action, defences, immunities or remedies recognised in one jurisdiction but not another undoubtedly produce different outcomes. Such cases raise interesting questions as to whether ultimate appellate courts should be slow to abandon principles that remain well accepted throughout the common law world, or cautious about taking a uniquely divergent path. The chapters in this book were originally presented at the Seventh Biennial Conference on the Law of Obligations held in Hong Kong in July 2014. A separate collection, entitled The Common Law of Obligations: Divergence and Unity (ISBN: 9781782256564), is also being published.

This book presents a broad survey of standards for the judicial control of B2B contract terms in different legal systems. Each chapter analyses in great detail the regulatory framework and the general principles that govern the judicial control of B2B contracts in a specific country, in particular the relevant standards for the judicial scrutiny of clauses and the resulting legal consequences thereof. Providing first-hand information with a focus on practical relevance from authors who specialise in the judicial control of contracts in their respective legal systems, this book is of particular value for lawyers who advise their clients in international business transactions and anyone interested in comparative contract law. The list of countries includes Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and Taiwan.