Judges, Legislators and Professors: Chapters in European Legal History (Goodhart Lectures) - Softcover

Caenegem, R. C. Van

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521438179 ISBN 13: 9780521438179

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1992

Synopsis

On the basis of ten concrete examples the author shows by what process and for what historical reasons continental law and common law have come to be so different. In so doing van Caenegem provides a historical introduction to continental law understandable to readers familiar with the common law, and vice-versa. This study is derived from the professor's lectures at Cambridge in 1984-85, in which lawyers from Europe, Great Britain and the United States participated. Judges, Legislators and Professors does not follow the traditional path of describing the development of ideas, but tries a new approach by interpreting legal history as, to a large extent, EEthe result of a power struggle.

About this title

Book Description:

Ten examples show by what process and for what historical reasons continental law and common law have come to differ. This study is derived from the author's lectures at Cambridge in 1984-85, in which lawyers from Europe, Great Britain and the United States participated.

Review:

'In Judges, Legislators and Professors Professor Raoul van Caenegem, a Belgian scholar who for many years has brought his knowledge of European legal history to some of the most intractable problems of early Common Law, sets out many instances where English law stands apart from the mainstream of western legal culture ... van Caenegem sees the distinctions as the result of essentially political developments which have meant that, at the critical moment in a country's legal history when a national law took shape, either judges or legislators or jurists were the dominant forces in that process.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

'This book brings fascinating insights into an area of law that has often been written about. His clear and lucid style makes the book a pleasure to read ... definitely recommended to all who are interested in legal history, comparative law or the legal system in general.' Malaya Law Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0521438179
• ISBN 13: 9780521438179
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 216