Mixed Legal Systems in Comparative Perspective: Property and Obligations in Scotland and South Africa - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199271003 ISBN 13: 9780199271009

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2005

Synopsis

Placed uniquely at the intersection of common law and civil law, mixed legal systems are today attracting the attention both of scholars of comparative law, and of those concerned with the development of a European private law. Pre-eminent among the mixed legal systems are those of Scotland and South Africa.

In South Africa the Roman-Dutch law, brought to the Cape by the Dutch East India Company in 1652 was, from the early nineteenth century onwards, infused with and re-moulded by the common law of the British imperial master. In Scotland a more gradual and elusive process saw the Roman-Scots law of the early modern period fall under the influence of English law after the Act of Union in 1707. The result, in each case, was a system of law which drew from both of the great European traditions whilst containing distinctive elements of its own.

This volume sets out to compare the effects of this historical development by assessing whether shared experience has led to shared law. Key topics from the law of property and obligations are examined, collaboratively and comparatively, by teams of leading experts from both jurisdictions. The individual chapters reveal an intricate pattern of similarity and difference, enabling courts and legal writers in Scotland and South Africa to learn from the experience of a kindred jurisdiction. They also, in a number of areas, reveal an emerging and distinctive jurisprudence of mixed systems, and thus suggest viable answers to some of the great questions which must be answered on the path towards a European private law.

About this title

About the Author

Reinhard Zimmermann is Director of the Max-Planck-Institute of Comparative Private Law and Private International Law in Hamburg, and Professor of Private Law, Roman Law and Comparative Legal History at the University of Regensburg.

Kenneth Reid is Professor of Property Law at the University of Edinburgh, and has been a Scottish Law Commissioner since 1995.

Daniel Visser is Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Cape Town.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199271003
• ISBN 13: 9780199271009
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 900
• Editor: Zimmermann Reinhard, Reid Kenneth, Visser Daniel