The Evolution of Western Private Law

by Watson, Alan

• ISBN13: 9780801864841
• ISBN10: 0801864844
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-25
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

In The Evolution of Western Private Law, renowned legal scholar Alan Watson presents a comprehensive overview of legal change in the Western world. Watson explains why and how such change occurs in mature systems, in underdeveloped systems, and when legal systems of different levels of sophistication and from different societal roots--such as those of the Romans and of Germanic tribes--come into contact. Originally intended as a second edition of the author's widely acclaimed The Evolution of Law (1985), this expanded edition has been completely restructured with more than double the number of examples. The result is a work that incorporates all the ideas that Watson has put forward during his twenty-five years studying comparative law and the development of legal systems, combining a remarkable range of sources with superb insight.

Author Biography

Alan Watson is the Ernest P. Rogers Professor and Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Georgia Law School. He is the author of Failures of the Legal Imagination, Slave Law in the Americas, International Law in Archaic Rome, and Roman Slave Law, the last two available from Johns Hopkins.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xiii
Abbreviations	xv
Legislation	1	(18)
Jurists	19	(35)
Judges	54	(37)
Custom	91	(22)
Legislation and Jurists: French Delit	113	(25)
Jurists, Judges, Custom, Legislation: Water Rights	138	(55)
Legal Transplants I: The Cause of the Reception of Roman Law	193	(25)
Legal Transplants 2: Other Receptions	218	(16)
The Case of English Common Law	234	(14)
Humanism, the Law of Reason, Codification	248	(13)
Conclusions	261	(6)
Notes	267	(44)
Glossary	311	(4)
Index	315