Freedom Under the Private Law examines the relationship between the private law, the rule of law and the protection of liberty. It traces important historical shifts in how these relationships have been conceived, from Plato’s conception of the Philosopher Kings, through the classical nineteenth century view of Dicey, the rise of the welfare state and the modern political economy of the present day. It offers a nuanced analysis of the intersection between private law and personal freedom.

Critical Studies in Private Law discusses the prerequisites and possibilities for an alternative or critical legal dogmatics. The starting point of the analysis is the recognition of contradictions within the legal order. In this respect the theory may use the experience of both American Critical Legal Studies and the German attempts to formulate a legal theory for the social state. The key for understanding how the contradictory concrete legal material may produce varying results on the level of legal decisions is the systematization, the general principles of the law. The analysis does not, however, stop at this theoretical level. The methodology is tested through a discussion of some features of modern private law. Some key elements of contract law, including consumer law, of the Welfare State are singled out. The work focuses on the person-orientation of modern law as a challenge to the traditional abstract legal form. The aim is to explore the limits for a contract law radically oriented towards the personal social and economic needs of the parties. This endeavour involves the creation of new legal concepts such as social force majeure.

In recent years the impact of human rights and fundamental rights on private law has risen in prominence and led to a whole series of detailed investigations. 'Constitutionalization of private law' is the flag under which most of the research on the increasing impact of national constitutional rights on national private legal orders is sailing. In the absence of a European Constitution, the constitutionalization of European private law suggests a process: constitutionalization instead of constituent power, demos, and the magic constitutional moment. The Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention of Human Rights constitute the two pillars on which the transformation of European private law rests. This volume clearly demonstrates the change that has taken place, at the national and at the European level. Private law is no longer immune to the intrusion of fundamental and human rights. Whilst member states and the EU are driving the process by adopting ever more concrete and more comprehensive lists of human and fundamental rights, at the national, the European, and international level with overlapping contents, the true and key players in this development are the national and European courts. Contributions to this volume give this process a face and a direction, which is highlighted in the introduction by Hans-W. Micklitz.

In this book the expansion of human right legislation in national and international law is examined from theoretical and comparative perspectives.

Canadian news reports are riddled with accounts of Access to Information requests denied and government reports released with large swaths of content redacted. The Unfulfilled Promise of Press Freedom in Canada offers a vast array of viewpoints that critically analyze the application and interpretation of press freedom under the Charter of Rights. This collection, assiduously put together by editors Lisa Taylor and Cara-Marie O'Hagan, showcases the insights of leading authorities in law, journalism, and academia as well as broadcasters and public servants. The contributors explore the ways in which press freedom has been constrained by outside forces, like governmental interference, threats of libel suits, and financial constraints. These intersectional and multifaceted lines of inquiry provide the reader with a 360-degree assessment of press freedom in Canada while discouraging complacency among Canadian citizens. After all, an informed citizenry is a free citizenry.

This volume outlines European perspectives on the liability which may follow a break-off of precontractual negotiations.

"Civil wrongs occupy a significant place in private law. They are particularly prominent in tort law, but equally have a place in contract law, property and intellectual property law, unjust enrichment, fiduciary law, and in equity more broadly. For example, some tort theorists maintain that tort law is best understood as a (or perhaps the) law of civil wrongs and some contract law theorists maintain that breach of contract is a civil wrong. Civil wrongs are also a preoccupation of leading general theories of private law, including corrective justice and civil recourse theories. According to these and other theories, the centrality of civil wrongs to civil liability shows that private law is fundamentally concerned with the expression and enforcement of norms of justice appropriate to interpersonal interaction and association. Others, sounding notes of caution or criticism, argue that a preoccupation with wrongs and remedies has meant neglect of other ways in which private law serves justice, and ways in which private law serves values other than justice. The present volume comprises original papers written by a wide variety of legal theorists and philosophers exploring the nature of civil wrongs, their place in private law, and their relationship to other forms of wrongdoing. It should be of broad interest to lawyers and legal theorists as well as moral and political theorists"--

A comparative investigation into the revolution in private law in the era of human rights Scotland and South Africa are mixed jurisdictions, combining features of common law and civil law traditions. Over the last decade a shared feature in both Scotland and South Africa has been a new and intense focus on human rights. In Scotland the European Convention on Human Rights now constitutes an important element in the foundation of all domestic law. Similarly, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, adopted in 1996, has as its cornerstone a Bill of Rights that binds not only the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and all organs of state, but also private parties. Of course the "constitutional moments" from which these documents sprang were very different and the Scottish and South African experience in some aspects could not be more dissimilar. Yet in many respects the parallels are close and compelling. This book, written by experts from both jurisdictions, examines exactly how human-rights provisions influence private law, looking at all branches of the subject. Moreover, it gives a unique perspective by comparing the approach in these kindred legal systems, thus providing a benchmark for both.

Every day, large numbers of altruistic individuals, in the absence of any legal duty, provide substantial and essential services for elderly and disabled people. In doing so, many such informal carers suffer financial and other disadvantages. This book considers the scope for a "private law" approach to rewarding, supporting or compensating carers, an increasingly vital topic in the context of an ageing population and the need for savings in public expenditure. Adopting a comparative approach, the book explores the recognition of the informal carer and his or her relationship with the care recipient within diverse fields of private law, from unjust enrichment to succession. Aspects of the analysis include the importance of a promise of a reward from the care recipient and the appropriate measure of any remedy. In considering the potential for expansion of a "private law" approach for carers, the book addresses the fundamental and controversial question of the price of altruism. Winner of the University of Cambridge's Yorke Prize 2014

This book combines philosophical, intellectual-historical and political-theoretical methodologies to provide a new synoptic reading of the history of German political philosophy. Incorporating chapters on the political ideas of Luther and Zwingli, on the politics of the early Enlightenment, on Idealism, on Historicism and Lukács, on early Twentieth-Century political theology, on the Frankfurt School, and on Habermas and Luhmann, the book sets out both a broad and a detailed discussion of German political reflection from the Reformation to the present. In doing so, it explains how the development of German political philosophy is marked by a continual concern with certain unresolved and recurrent problems. It claims that all the major positions address questions relating to the origin of law, that all seek to account for the relation between legal validity and metaphysical and theological superstructures, and that all are centred on the attempt to conceptualise and reconstruct the character of the legal subject.