Mapping Private Law

This collection of essays celebrates the life and work of Peter Birks, who was Regius Professor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford, and Fellow of All Souls College. Widely known as one of the most prolific legal scholars for over twenty years, his contribution to English obligations lawis legendary. He was Founder of the Clarendon Law Lectures, editor of the Clarendon Law Series, editor of the Oxford English Law Series, and author of several works on the English law of restitution, comparative restitution, and unjust enrichment.This works in this volume cover the English law of unjust enrichment and restitution, comparative perspectives on unjust enrichment and restitution, Roman law, and legal history, reflecting the range on Peter Birks' work and influence.As one of the most distinguished academic lawyers of his generation Peter Birks' contribution to legal scholarship grew to be recognised as one of the most outstanding by a British jurist in the second half of the twentieth century. This collection attempts to acknowledge and pay tribute to PeterBirks' work.

Original sources illustrate and compare the principal doctrines of private law in the United States, England, France, Germany and China.

This book considers the inherent complexities of private law; relevant to property, tort, contract, legal method and legal theory.

'Mapping the Law' covers topics such as aspects of unjust enrichment, tracing, damages & compensation, undue influence, property law, insolvency, equity & trusts, Roman law, & legal history. This collection of essays on private law & legal history celebrates the life & work of Peter Birks.

This work has become a key point of reference on English private law for lawyers in the UK and throughout the world. Packed within its 2,000 pages users will find a lucid, concise yet immensely authoritative account of all of the key areas of private law. Each section is written by anacknowledged expert, bringing to bear their experience and understanding to provide a clear distillation and analysis of the relevant subject. The second supplement, included in this set, fully updates the main volumes with all developments affecting English Private Law up to January 2004.

Peter Birks's tragically early death, and his immense influence around the world, led immediately to the call for a volume of essays in his honour by scholars who had known him as a colleague, teacher and friend. One such volume, published in 2006, contained essays largely from scholars working in England (Mapping the Law: Essays in Memory of Peter Birks, edited by Andrew Burrows and Lord Rodger). This volume contains the essays of those outside England who chose to honour Peter, and appears later than the English volume, reflecting the far flung habitations of its authors. The essays contained in this volume are focussed around the law of unjust enrichment, but are not narrowly preoccupied - instead they move freely from unjust enrichment to some of the most profound questions in private law concerning taxonomy, the relationship between contract, property and unjust enrichment, and the place of remedies within private law. This volume, featuring the work of some of the world's great private lawyers, provides a fitting tribute to a great scholar, and a series of thought-provoking essays inspired by his example. Contributors Kit Barker Michael Bryan Peter Butler Hanoch Dagan Simone Degeling Daniel Friedmann Mark Gergen Ross Grantham Steve Hedley John McCamus Mitchell McInnes Eoin O'Dell Charles Rickett Struan Scott Emily Sherwin Stephen Smith Richard Sutton Michael Tilbury Stephen Waddams Peter Watts Ernest Weinrib Eric Descheemaeker

"This book discusses developments in scholarship dedicated to reinvigorating the study of the broad domain of private law. This field, which embraces the traditional common law subjects-property, contracts, and torts-as well as adjacent, more statutory areas, such as intellectual property and commercial law, also includes important subjects that have been neglected in the United States but are beginning to make a comeback. The book particularly focuses on the New Private Law, an approach that aims to bring a new outlook to the study of private law by moving beyond reductively instrumentalist policy evaluation and narrow, rule-by-rule, doctrine-by-doctrine analysis, so as to consider and capture how private law's various features fit and work together, as well as the normative underpinnings of these larger structures. This movement is resuscitating the notion of private law itself in United States and has brought an interdisciplinary perspective to the more traditional, doctrinal approach prevalent in Commonwealth countries. The book embraces a broad range of perspectives to private law-including philosophical, economic, historical, and psychological- yet it offers a unifying theme of seriousness about the structure and content of private law."--

This collection of readings places side by side the principal doctrines of contracts, torts, unjust enrichment, and property in the cases of the United States, England, France, Germany and China. It presents code provisions, cases, and other legal materials that describe the law in force, and places each doctrine in its historical context to enable an understanding of the development of law as an ongoing process, in which the resolution of current issues depends upon how past issues were resolved. It both provides a road map of the private law of these jurisdictions, and illustrates how private law has been shaped by history, by the effort to solve common problems, and by differences in culture. This new edition reflects changes in the law, and includes the addition of Chinese Law as a comparative study.

'Mapping the Law' covers topics such as aspects of unjust enrichment, tracing, damages & compensation, undue influence, property law, insolvency, equity & trusts, Roman law, & legal history. This collection of essays on private law & legal history celebrates the life & work of Peter Birks.