The development of private law across the common law world is typically portrayed as a series of incremental steps, each one delivered as a result of judges dealing with marginally different factual circumstances presented to them for determination. This is said to be the common law method. According to this process, change might be assumed to be gradual, almost imperceptible. If this were true, however, then even Darwinian-style evolution - which is subject to major change-inducing pressures, such as the death of the dinosaurs - would seem unlikely in the law, and radical and revolutionary paradigms shifts perhaps impossible. And yet the history of the common law is to the contrary. The legal landscape is littered with quite remarkable revolutionary and evolutionary changes in the shape of the common law. The essays in this volume explore some of the highlights in this fascinating revolutionary and evolutionary development of private law. The contributors expose the nature of the changes undergone and their significance for the future direction of travel. They identify the circumstances and the contexts which might have provided an impetus for these significant changes. The essays range across all areas of private law, including contract, tort, unjust enrichment and property. No area has been immune from development. That fact itself is unsurprising, but an extended examination of the particular circumstances and contexts which delivered some of private law's most important developments has its own special significance for what it might indicate about the shape, and the shaping, of private law regimes in the future.

This book presents, analyses and evaluates the Principles of Latin American Contract Law (PLACL), a recent set of provisions aiming at the harmonisation of contract law at a regional level. As such, the PLACL are the most recent exponent of the many proposals for transnational sets of 'principles of contract law' that were drafted or published over the past 20 years, either at the global or the regional level. These include the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts, the Principles of European Contract Law, the (European) Draft Common Frame of Reference and the Principles of Asian Contract Law. The PLACL are the product of a working group comprising legal academics from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. The 111 articles of the instrument deal with problems of general contract law, such as formation, interpretation and performance of contracts, as well as remedies for breach. The book aims to introduce the PLACL to an international audience by putting them in their historical and comparative context, including other transnational harmonisation measures and initiatives. The contributions are authored by drafters of the PLACL and contract law experts from Europe and Latin America.

The provisions of the French Civil Code governing the law of obligations have remained largely unchanged since 1804 and have served as the model for civil codes across the world. In 2016, the French Government effected major reforms of the provisions on the law of contract, the general regime of obligations and proof of obligations. This work explores in detail the most interesting new provisions on French contract law in a series of essays by French lawyers and comparative lawyers working on French law and other civil law systems. It will make these fundamental reforms accessible to an English-speaking audience.

This book analyses enrichment law and its development and underpinning in social culture within three geographical regions: the United States, western members of the European Union and the late Ottoman Empire. These regions correspond, though imperfectly, with three different legal traditions: the American, continental and Islamic traditions. The book argues that we should understand law as a mimetic artefact. In so doing, it explains how typical patterns and exemplary articulations of wrongful enrichment law capture and reiterate vocal cultural themes found in the respective regions. The book identifies remarkable affinities between poetic tendencies, structures and default dispositions of wrongful enrichment law and cultural world views. It offers bold accounts of each region's law and culture providing fertile grounds for external and comparative elucidations of the legal doctrine.

Provides useful background and detailed advice on the law surrounding a wide range of commercial agreements including: Key common clauses; When to use standard terms; Procedures and good practice; Termination of contracts; Remedies for breach; Specific issues relating to export, software and consumer contracts. It also contains valuable precedents, including expert guidance on Business-to-Business and Business-to-Consumer agreements, providing users with an excellent tool for drafting commercial contracts. Key changes for the new 5th edition include coverage and analysis of: - important case law as to when terms are unfair or unreasonable, notably the first Supreme Court ruling on the fairness test in ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis - Changes in the regulation of consumer credit since regulation passed to the Financial Conduct Authority - Fresh court guidance as to when terms have been incorporated into a contract - Rulings on the rules as to the enforceable of onerous terms - The Consumer Rights Act 2015 - The effect of the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR - Brexit and the transitional period - The new 2019 EU Regulation on privacy - Replacement of the PECR regulations by the new EU Directive on trade secrets and UK implementation An essential resource for commercial contract drafters helping them to prepare water tight legal agreements and ensure that they are completely clear on what a business must do to stay on the right side of the law. Includes online access to downloadable precedents

The second edition of this highly recommended work addresses the interaction between conflict of laws, dispute resolution, electronic commerce and consumer contracts. In addition it identifies specific difficulties that conflicts lawyers and consumer lawyers encounter in electronic commerce and proposes original approaches to balance the conflict of interest between consumers' access to justice and business efficiency. The European Union has played a leading role in this area of law and its initiatives are fully explored. It pays particular attention to the most recent development in collective redress and alternative/online dispute resolution. By adopting multiple research methods, including a comparative study of the EU and US approach; historical analysis of protective conflict of laws; doctrinal analysis of legal provisions and economic analysis of law, it provides the most comprehensive examination of frameworks in cross-border consumer contracts.

This book introduces the reader to a number of ideas and issues that underlie the English law of contract-an area of law that is often regarded as forbiddingly dry and technical but which is here made easy to understand and full of interest. Taking as its starting point the role contract law plays in helping markets to operate, the book explains how contract law regulates the commercial risks people take, while at the same time placing limits on what may be bought and sold, and ensuring that contractual powers are not unacceptably abused. A final chapter discusses how contract law can be used to make gifts of binding promises to other people. The book provides a rigorous and stimulating journey through the ideas underpinning contract law and is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the subject. 'Clearly written and bursting with interesting and novel ideas, this lively book will be a great resource for anyone interested in Contract Law.' Paul S Davies, Professor of Commercial Law, University College London

The Law Commission (of England and Wales) and the Scottish Law Commission were both established in 1965 to promote the reform of the laws of their respective jurisdictions. Since then, they have each produced hundreds of reports across many areas of law. They are independent of government yet rely on governmental funding and governmental approval of their proposed projects. They also rely on both government and Parliament (and, occasionally, the courts or other bodies) to implement their proposals. This book examines the tension between independence and implementation and recommends how a balance can best be struck. It proposes how the Commissions should choose their projects given that their duties outweigh their resources, and how we should assess the success, or otherwise, of their output. Countries around the world have created law reform bodies in the Commissions' image. They may wish to reflect on the GB Commissions' responses to the changes and challenges they have faced to reappraise their own law reform machinery. Equally, the GB Commissions may seek inspiration from other commissions' experiences. The world the GB Commissions inhabit now is very different from when they were established. They have evolved to remain relevant in the face of devolution, the UK's changing relationship with the European Union, increasing pressure for accountability and decreasing funding. Further changes to secure the future of independent law reform are advanced in this book.