Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-1769) stands as the first great effort to reduce the English common law to a unified and rational system. Blackstone demonstrated that the English law as a system of justice was comparable to Roman law and the civil law of the Continent. Clearly and elegantly written, the work achieved immediate renown and exerted a powerful influence on legal education in England and in America which was to last into the late nineteenth century. The book is regarded not only as a legal classic but as a literary masterpiece. Previously available only in an expensive hardcover set, Commentaries on the Laws of England is published here in four separate volumes, each one affordably priced in a paperback edition. These works are facsimiles of the eighteenth-century first edition and are undistorted by later interpolations. Each volume deals with a particular field of law and carries with it an introduction by a leading contemporary scholar. Introducing this second volume, Of the Rights of Things, A. W. Brian Simpson discusses the history of Blackstone's theory of various aspects of property rights—real property, feudalism, estates, titles, personal property, and contracts—and the work of his predecessors.

Containing over 100 pamphlets, this edition provides a resource for the study of Chartism, covering the main areas of Chartist activity, including agitation for the Charter itself, the Land Plan, the issue of moral versus physical force and trade unionism.

Includes the Commentaries in English, Irish, American and foreign editions; English, American and foreign abridgements and extracts; the comic Blackstone, works founded on the commentaries, Blackstone's miscellaneous works, and Blackstone biography and criticism.

As global climate change threatens to change radically both the political and physical climate with regard to water issues, so a reassessment of some of the fundamental principles of international water law is emerging. One of the most important principles being reassessed is the sovereign equality of states. This volume brings together more than thirty leading international water and legal specialists to explore the development and changing relationship between water, state sovereignty and international law. Offering fresh insights into one of the most pressing issues in global water policy, Sovereignty and International Water Law will form an essential reference for water professionals, legal specialists and policy makers alike.

This is the seventh edition of the leading work on transnational and comparative commercial, financial, and trade law, covering a wide range of complex topics in the modern law of international commerce, finance and trade. As a guide for students and practitioners it has proven to be unrivalled. The work is divided into three volumes, each of which can be used independently or as part of the complete work. Volume 2 deals with the transnationalisation of contract; movable and intangible property law; and the transformation of the models of contract and movable property in commercial and financial transactions between professionals in the international flow of goods, services, money, information, and technology. In this transnational legal order, the emphasis in the new law merchant or modern lex mercatoria of contract and movable property turns to risk management, asset liquidity, and transactional and payment finality. Common law and civil law concepts are compared and future directions indicated. The potential, effects, and challenges of the blockchain are noted, so far especially for the carriage of goods by sea. All three volumes may be purchased separately or as part of a single set.

In the past decade, human rights as a component of U.S. foreign policy has been the subject of intense debate. First brought to the forefront by President Carter, it has also turned out to be one of the most controversial aspects of foreign policy during the Reagan administration. Policymakers who attempt to cope with human rights issues are immediately confronted with questions not only about the basic purposes of U.S. foreign policy, but also about the essential nature of our political system; they are compelled to reflect upon the interrelationship between domestic public opinion and the pursuit of U.S. interests abroad. The complexity of human rights issues is reflected in the diverse contributions to this book. The authors examine the philosophical foundations of human rights, the lessons of history that are relevant to today's concerns, and contemporary policy. A concluding essay provides a critical analysis of the arguments made by the authors.

Reveals how people thought about, used, manipulated and resisted the law from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, focusing on everyday legal experiences.

The law of succession rests on a single brute fact: you can't take it with you. The stock of wealth that turns over as people die is staggeringly large. In the United States alone, some $41 trillion will pass from the dead to the living in the first half of the 21st century. But the social impact of inheritance is more than a matter of money; it is also a matter of what money buys and brings about. Law and custom allow people many ways to pass on their property. As Friedman's enlightening social history reveals, a decline in formal rules, the ascendancy of will substitutes over classic wills, social changes like the rise of the family of affection, changing ideas of acceptable heirs, and the potential disappearance of the estate tax all play a large role in the balance of wealth. Dead Hands uncovers the tremendous social and legal importance of this rite of passage, and how it reflects changing values and priorities in American families and society.

This book provides an original and multidisciplinary approach on Magna Carta (1215) as a joint heritage, a source of inspiration both for long established democracies and countries which only recently experienced the Rule of Law. Far from simply extolling the virtues associated with Magna Carta, it explores the gaps of the Great Charter. Instead of dealing separately with the historians’ and the lawyers’ outlooks as two conflicting perspectives, it juxtaposes the views of medievalist and contemporary historians with those of practicing lawyers and law academics, offering readers a thorough yet accessible historic and legal analysis of the charter and its meaning for the citizens of twenty-first century democracies. At a time of the erosion of civil liberties and fundamental rights, The Rights and Aspirations of the Magna Carta provides a rare insight into the 1215 medieval charter and its legacy.