In Patel v Mirza [2016] UKSC 42, nine justices of the Supreme Court of England and Wales decided in favour of a restitutionary award in response to an unjust enrichment, despite the illegal transaction on which that enrichment was based. Whilst the result was reached unanimously, the reasoning could be said to have divided the Court. Lord Toulson, Lady Hale, Lord Kerr, Lord Wilson, Lord Hodge and Lord Neuberger favoured a discretionary approach, but their mode of reasoning was described as 'revolutionary' by Lord Sumption (at [261]), who outlined in contrast a more rule-based means of dealing with the issue; a method with which Lord Mance and Lord Clarke broadly agreed. The decision is detailed and complex, and its implications for several areas of the law are considerable. Significantly, the reliance principle from Tinsley v Milligan [1994] 1 AC 340 has been discarded, as has the rule in Parkinson v College of Ambulance Ltd [1925] KB 1. Patel v Mirza, therefore, can fairly be described as one of the most important judgments in general private law for a generation, and it can be expected to have ramifications for the application of the illegality doctrine across a wide range of disciplinary areas. Unless there is legislative intervention, which does not seem likely at the present time, Patel v Mirza is set to be of enduring significance. This collection will provide a crucial set of theoretical and practical perspectives on the illegality defence in English private law. All of the authors are well established in their respective fields. The timing of the book means that it will be unusually well placed as the 'go to' work on this subject, for legal practitioners and for scholars.

The inclusion of software and algorithms in the scope of patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office has propelled an ongoing debate on the contribution of patents to innovation and economic growth. This book examines the effects of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), namely patents and copyrights, on innovation and technical change in information technologies. It provides new insights on the links between markets, technologies and legislation by applying a variety of empirical and analytical methods. The book also explores the success of the Open Source movement to establish an alternative regime for IPRs by illuminating the rationale behind it and illustrating how Open Source can strategically be used by firms. Initially the book analyzes the role of IPRs by building upon the literature on the economics of innovation and technical change and on insights from evolutionary economics - in particular, the role of knowledge in the economy. It then goes on to analyze the evolution of IPR regimes and IPR policies with regards to IT and software technologies and products and elaborates their impact on innovation. Finally, a series of empirical and analytical models are provided to elaborate the balance between monopoly rights (by patent and copyrights) and knowledge disclosure as an input for innovation and technological development. Elad Harison's book will appeal to researchers and academics of law and economics, policymakers such as the European Commission, Patent offices, EPO, OECD, as well as directors and strategic managers in large software companies.

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.

In recent years collective litigation procedures have spread across the globe, accompanied by hot controversy and normative debate. Yet virtually nothing is known about how these procedures operate in practice. Based on extensive documentary and interview research, this volume presents the results of the first comparative investigation of class actions and group litigation 'in action'. Produced by a multinational team of legal scholars, this book spans research from ten different countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, including common law and civil law jurisdictions. The contributors conclude that to understand how class actions work in practice, one needs to know the cultural factors that shape claiming, the financial arrangements that enable or impede litigation, and how political actors react when mass claims erupt. Substantive law and procedural rules matter, but culture, economics and politics matter at least as much. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of law, business and politics. It will also be of use to public policy makers looking to respond to mass claims; financial analysts looking to understanding the potential impact of new legal instruments; and global lawyers who litigate transnationally. Contributors: A. Barroilhet, C. Cameron, N. Creutzfeldt, M.A. Gomez, A. Halfmeier, D.R. Hensler, C. Hodges, K.-C. Huang, J. Kalajdzic, A. Klement, B. Stier, E. Thornburg, I. Tzankova, S. Voet

The chapters in this volume are written by international experts from a variety of disciplines, employing a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to issues in copyright law. This volume, and the series of which it is the final part, is structured around the six themes of the AHRC Network on New Directions in Copyright Law, which are: (1) Theoretical Framework of Copyright Law; (2) Globalisation, Convergence and Divergence; (3) Developments in Rights Neighbouring on Copyright; (4) Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Culture; (5) Copyright and the New Technologies; and (6) Copyright, Corporate Power and Human Rights. Accordingly, the volume addresses itself to all those with an interest in copyright, regardless of discipline.

In this volume, Victor Goldberg reassesses a collection of key contract law doctrines, largely through original economic analyses of well-known cases involving sophisticated parties. The results are thoughtful and provocative. They leave the impression that the law might produce more efficient consequences if contractual liability were more restrictive. Contracts teachers may well teach these and other cases differently after reading Goldberg's chapters.' - Steven J. Burton, The University of Iowa, US'This book offers valuable insights and new perspectives on the often thorny problems of contract law as it can - and does - affect 'sophisticated parties'. Lawyers as well as academics on both sides of the Atlantic will welcome the important contribution made here to the ongoing debates which rage continually within this core area of the law.' - Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor, The Barrister Magazine Contract law allows parties to set their own rules within constraints. It provides a set of default rules and if the parties do not like them, they can change them. Rethinking Contract Law and Contract Design explores various long-standing contract doctrines, casting them in a new and compelling light by focusing on the economics of contractual relations. Building upon and extending the arguments set forth in his acclaimed book Framing Contract Law, Goldberg revisits many of the seminal contract cases and places those decisions under close scrutiny, challenging readers, by means of forensic exploration of records, briefs, and other materials, to reconsider their conclusions. Split into four parts, the author examines direct damages, consequential damages, the excuses doctrines (including impossibility, impracticability and frustration), and offer and acceptance. Asking the questions that often go unasked, and challenging the assumptions silently accepted by the majority, one of Goldberg's many insightful observations, and an underlying thread to the book, is that achieving an economic understanding of contract design will illuminate both contract doctrine and contract interpretation. Written with clarity and poise, Rethinking Contract Law and Contract Design is set to ignite plenty of debate amongst contract scholars and contract drafters, and provides the anvil upon which future generations of contract thinking can be forged. Contract scholars and students interested in exploring new perspectives on the topic will find this to be an essential read, as will contract lawyers and judges.

This fourth volume in the series contains further exploration of the main themes considered in the first three volumes and brings together perspectives on copyright from law and legal theory, political economy, human rights, cultural studies and social theory. New Directions in Copyright Law, Volume 4, offers insightful contributions from leading commentators on a range of issues affecting the development and direction of copyright law. The volume is divided into six parts. In the first part, the theoretical framework of copyright law is explored through the concepts of the market place of ideas and the public domain. While a number of chapters address substantive aspects of copyright law reform, the second part of the volume contains a chapter that marries substantive questions with issues around the mechanics, limitations and possibilities of the reform process. In the third part, two chapters consider the problematic notion of paternity rights from contrasting disciplinary perspectives. The interface between copyright law and the burgeoning of new technologies is considered through a range of theoretical and methodological approaches. In the fourth part of the volume legal theorists address issues around open access, open source, free software, and the implications of network theory for the relationship between copyright law and the Internet. Moving away from the concerns of so-called 'high technology', the fifth part of the volume considers the equally fraught question of the protection of traditional knowledge and cultural property through an analysis of the limits of law. The final part of the volume, which deals with copyright's uncomfortable relationship with human rights, sees a return to issues around the new technologies with a focus on the political economy of open source software, and on the issue of information access and fundamental rights.

The book provides the authoritative statement on the current law on rights of light in England and Wales. The protection of the access of natural light to properties has been a part of our property law for centuries but in recent years has come into particular prominence. This is due to a number of reasons including the existence of easements of light being regarded as an inhibition on new development and the unsatisfactory nature of parts of the law on this subject. This has given rise to two reports in recent years by the Law Commission (one on easements generally in 2011 and one on rights of light specifically in 2014), both containing major proposals for law reform. The purpose of this legal textbook is to explain the law as clearly as possible. In practice rights of light issues and disputes involve technical subjects and inevitably answers to these questions require the expertise of technical experts such as light surveyors. An attempt is made in the book to explain from a non-technical point of view the way in which measurements and calculations are carried out in this area. It is therefore hoped that the book will be of use to lawyers as well as to landowners who may not always understand these technical subjects and to surveyors who may not always be familiar with the legal concepts and difficulties involved in the area of the law of rights of light.

This monograph examines the intricate legislative and jurisprudential scenario of family reunification between EU citizens and third country nationals that has developed in the European Union over the last 50 years. Focusing on family residence rights granted to third country national family members of EU citizens, it examines one of the largest sectors affected with over two hundred thousand permits granted each year. In addition to its practical significance, the field has been the object of a lively debate, which has yet to be systematically analysed. Using a historical approach, it illustrates the development of the legislation and of the case law on the issue considering the factors that influenced the choices of the EU Legislator and of the Court over the years. It also suggests what future path the Court could take when deciding on cases in the field in order to reinforce the protection of families. This important research ensures full understanding of the EU legislation and of the Court's jurisprudence and allows for its correct application by Member States.

Do lawyers make matters worse, or do they provide information, advice and support which can help to prevent disputes arising or manage them when they do? Do mediators enable parties to communicate and reach agreements tailor-made to their needs? Or working outside the legal framework, do they find it difficult to protect weaker parties and access expert advice? What happens when lawyers become mediators? This book will describe the structure of service provision and the day-to-day work of lawyers, mediators, and lawyer mediators, drawing on empirical work carried out between 2013 and 2015 immediately after the recent changes to the management of divorce and separation within the family justice system. The reduction in legal aided help in 2013 and the failure of mediation to fill the gap in 2014-15 have given rise to a difficult debate. This book aims to provide an account of some of the practical effects of these policies through a description of the daily work of practitioners in the sector. It raises the question of whether we need to choose between traditional legal services and the new processes of private ordering or whether intermediate positions might be possible.

What obligations to each other do people have or think they have? That question comes up in relation to family and marriage relationships, to law, and to moral reasoning. This novel and highly readable book takes it up in relation to inheritances: to what people think they should leave or be left, who should receive what, when, how, and why. Making the book novel is its range. Here are views about more than money. Covered are also houses, land and, an often neglected but emotion-laden area, the personal and often indivisible things that mean one is remembered as an individual. Making it novel also is its emphasis throughout on meanings and on what people see as matters of choice or flexibility. Even in countries where the legal codes specify who should receive what after death (many European and most Islamic codes allow far less choice than British-based law does), people still have room for decisions about what they give away to various heirs or spend before death. What makes the book highly readable? One reason is its timeliness. Currently lively, for example, are debates over parents balancing their own needs and wishes against those of their children ("spending the kids' inheritance," in one description). Another is the book's style. The writing is straightforward. Theory is not neglected but there is an absence of jargon. The material is also mostly based on narratives: on people's own descriptions of arrangements that "worked well" or "did not work well" and on why they thought so. That base makes the book far from dry and far from being an account only of negative feelings, objections, challenges, and family rifts. It also makes it more relevant at times of indecision or misunderstanding. In short, a book for many readers, both within the social sciences and beyond it.

This unique study investigates the path of innovation in the electrical, electronics and communications engineering industries. It presents a holistic, multi-disciplinary analysis of innovation based on case studies of paradigm-changing inventions - spanning two hundred years - which altered the course of the global economy. The stimuli and constraints which control the dynamics of these innovations are pin-pointed in this book and applied to emerging technologies. Roger Cullis tests the analysis using a recent technology which underpins the embryonic information-based economy. He demonstrates that it is possible to use the hierarchical and time dependent nature of the stimuli and constraints he has identified to predict the likely success of a new technological invention. Considering the impact of all factors which contribute to the success of innovations, this unique book will be of great interest to inventors, patent attorneys and intellectual property practitioners and academics. It will also interest licensing executives and venture capitalists, innovation economists and government policymakers.

In this bold and timely work, law professor Jeffrey Shulman argues that the United States Constitution does not protect a fundamental right to parent. Based on a rigorous reconsideration of the historical record, Shulman challenges the notion, held by academics and the general public alike, that parental rights have a long-standing legal pedigree. What is deeply rooted in our legal tradition and social conscience, Shulman demonstrates, is the idea that the state entrusts parents with custody of the child, and it does so only as long as parents meet their fiduciary duty to serve the developmental needs of the child. Shulman's illuminating account of American legal history is of more than academic interest. If once again we treat parenting as a delegated responsibility-as a sacred trust, not a sacred right-we will not all reach the same legal prescriptions, but we might be more willing to consider how time-honored principles of family law can effectively accommodate the evolving interests of parent, child, and state.

The increasing shift towards digital publishing has provoked much debate concerning the issues surrounding ?'Open Access?' (OA), including its economic implications. This timely book considers how the future of academic publishing might look in a purely digital environment and utilises unique empirical data in order to analyze the experiences of researchers with, as well as attitudes towards, OA publishing. Presenting findings from a novel, in-depth survey with more than 10,000 respondents from 25 countries, this book shows that the research culture of scientific research differs considerably between disciplines and countries. These differences significantly determine the role of both '?gold?' and '?green?' forms of OA and foster both opportunity and risk. Discussing their findings in the light of recent policy attempts to foster OA, Thomas Eger and Marc Scheufen reveal considerable shortcomings and lack of knowledge on fundamental features of the academic publishing market and conclude by highlighting a policy agenda for its future development. Well-timed and far-reaching, this book will be of particular interest to students and scholars interested in the economic analysis of copyright law. Academic librarians and research sponsors will also benefit from the insights offered.

In modern markets innovation is at least as great a concern as price competition. The book discusses how antitrust policy and patent and copyright laws interact to create market dynamics that affect both competition and innovation. Antitrust and intellectual property policies for the most part are complementary, sharing common goals of promoting innovation and economic welfare. In some cases, however, their distinct approaches, one based on competition and the other on exclusion, come into conflict. As antitrust authorities focus increasingly on ensuring that firms do not interfere with innovation by rivals or impede the pace of technological progress in an industry, they necessarily must confront difficult questions about the strength and scope of intellectual property rights. When should private property rights give way to public competition objectives? When is it appropriate to remedy anticompetitive outcomes through access to protected intellectual property? How does antitrust enforcement or competition itself affect incentives to innovate? Leading economists and lawyers address these questions from both US and EU perspectives in discussing salient antitrust cases involving intellectual property rights such as Microsoft, Magill, Kodak, IMS and Intel. Offering a non-technical introduction to this major topic, this book will be of interest to those practitioners and legal and economic scholars who may only be aware of one side of the conflicting views on competition law and intellectual property law. It will also be of interest more generally to schools and universities of law in the EU and the US.