This book is widely regarded as one of the most remarkable achievements in Roman Law and Comparative Law scholarship this century - a fact attested to by the universal acclaim with which it has been received throughout Europe, America, and beyond. As a work of Roman Law scholarship it fusesthe vast volume of 20th century scholarship on the Roman law of obligations into a clear and very readable (and in many ways original) account of the law. As a work of comparative law it traces the transformation of the Roman law of obligations over the centuries into what is now modern German,English and South African law, presenting the reader with a contrast between these legal systems which is unique both in its scope and its depth. As a whole the book is written with a deep understanding of human nature and of many social, economic, and other forces that determine the face of thelaw.

This book provides a history of some of the main institutions of South African private law and in so doing explores the process through which integration of the English common law and the continental civil law came about in that jurisdiction. Here is a book aimed at both European and South African audiences. For European lawyers it provides a stimulating insight into the way the process of harmonization of private law has occurred in South Africa and may occur within the European Union. By analysing the historical evolution of the most important institutions of the law of obligations and the law of property the book demonstrates how the two legal traditions have been accommodated within one system. The starting point for each essay is the "pure" Roman-Dutch law as it was transplanted to the Cape of Good Hope in the years following 1652 (and as it has been examined in considerable detail in another volume edited by Robert Feenstra and Reinhard Zimmerman, published in 1992). The analysis focuses on how the Roman-Dutch law has been preserved, changed, modified or replaced in the course of the nineteenth century when the Cape became a British colony; and on what happened after the creation of the union of South Africa in 1910. Each essay therefore attempts, in the field of law with which it is dealing, to answer questions such as: what was the level of interaction between the civil law and the common law? What were the mechanisms that brought about the particular form of competition, coexistence or fusion that exists in that area of law? Is the process complete or is it still continuing? Is it possible to observe the emergence, from these two routes, of a genuinely South African private law? How is the result to be evaluated? In establishing reception patterns at the level of specific areas of law, they go beyond generalization about the compatibility of the two traditions and present evidence of a possible symbiosis of English and Continental law. For South African readers the principal value of the book is that it offers essays by the most prominent South African private lawyers refelecting on the history of their subjects. It therefore constitutes the first stage in the writing of a history of substantive private law in South Africa. So far the focus has mainly been on the so called "external history" of South African law, and such texts as there are on the development of the institutions of private law are often in Afrikaans and mainly to be found in unpublished theses. Thus this book fulfils a real need for those teaching South African private law and legal history. Although the volume investigates a specific aspect of the making of modern South African law it is imperative not to lose sight of the fact that private law in that country, as every way else did not develop in a vacuum, but as part of a wider political and social prcess. For this reason the book opens with an essay which contextualizes the contributions that follow, giving a view of the "setting" in which the development of South Africa took place: colonial domination, cultural imperialism, and racial and nationalistic ideologies. Two further introductory essays pay specific attention to the impact of the procedural framework on the substantive private law and to the "architects" of the mixed system.

The law developed by the ancient Romans remains a powerful legal and political instrument today. In The Roman Law Tradition a general editorial introduction complements a series of more detailed essays by an international team of distinguished legal scholars exploring the various ways in which Roman law has affected and continues to affect patterns of legal decision-making throughout the world.

With contributions by J.A. Ankum, O. Behrends, G.C.J.J. v.d. Bergh, A.M.J.A Berkvens, Th.E. v. Bochove, F.J. Bruinsma, R. Feenstra, R. Forrez A.Fl. Gehlen, F.W. Grosheide, J. Hellebeek, M.L. Hewett, J.B.M. van Hoek, A.M. Hol, E. Hondius, C.J.H. Jansen, R. Knütel, C. de Koninck, C. Krampe, B. Kupisch, L. de Ligt, J.H.A. Lokin, J. Menner, O. Moorman van Kappen, P.L. Nève, C.H. van Rhee, E.J.H. Schrage, A.J.B. Sirks, E. Slob, B.H. Stolte, R. Verstegen, M. v.d. Vrugt, A. Wacke, L. Waelkens, T. Wallinga, A. Watson, L.C. Winkel, F.B.J. Wubbe, W.J. Zwalve

Contains papers from a conference on De iure praedae, held in June 2005 at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

This volume brings together an international team of scholars to debate Cicero's role in the narrative of Roman law in the late Republic - a role that has been minimised or overlooked in previous scholarship. This reflects current research that opens a larger and more complex debate about the nature of law and of the legal profession in the last century of the Roman Republic.

This two-volume series offers the first detailed and systematic account of the history of private law in Scotland. Volume 2 covers topics such as insurance, negligence, liability, breach of contract, unfair contract terms, sale, and defamation.

This third selection of articles by Robert Feenstra complements the two previously published, continuing his studies of doctrines of private law and of texts related to university teaching from the 13th century into the early modern period. In the section on private law, some pieces deal with the Middle Ages, while others focus on Hugo Grotius. Property is again an important topic, but this time joined by legal personality (foundations) and negligence (vicarious liability included). The studies on the history of texts are mainly concerned with works dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. One is devoted to a little-known civil law teacher at the University of Orléans and his commentary on a part of the Digest. The four others deal with treatises belonging to the so-called 'vulgarisation' of the 'droit savant' (medieval Roman and Canon law); most of these include important contributions to the history of early printing (incunabula and post-incunabula). Cette troisième sélection d'articles de Robert Feenstra complète les deux précédentes; elle constitue la suite de ses études sur les doctrines de droit privé et sur des textes se rapportant à l'enseignement universitaire du XIIIe jusqu'au XVIIIe siècle. Dans la section consacrée au droit privé, quelques articles s'occupent en premier lieu du moyen âge, d'autres focalisent sur Hugo Grotius. La propriété est de nouveau un sujet important, mais elle se trouve en compagnie de la personnalité juridique (notamment par rapport aux fondations) et de la responsabilité civile (y compris la responsabilité du fait d'autrui). Les études sur l'histoire des textes concernent surtout quelques ouvrages du XIVe et du XVe siècle. La première est consacrée à un professeur de droit civil peu connu de l'université d'Orléans et à son commentaire sur l'une des trois parties du Digeste. Les quatre autres s'occupent de traités appartenant à la "vulgarisation" du droit savant (droit romain et droit canonique au moye