Private Law and Human Rights: Bringing Rights Home in Scotland and South Africa - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1399571974 ISBN 13: 9781399571975

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2026

Synopsis

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 a Bill of Rights as its cornerstone. This binds the legislature, the executive, the judiciary and all organs of state - and also private parties.

In some ways, the Scottish and South African experience could not be more dissimilar, and the ‘constitutional moments’ from which these documents sprang were very different. At the same time, 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, providing a benchmark for both.

About this title

About the Authors

Elspeth Reid is Professor of Scottish Private Law at the University of Edinburgh. She has published extensively in Scotland and abroad on comparative private law themes, including in particular the law of delict/tort. She is the Series Editor of the Edinburgh Studies in Law monograph series.

Professor Daniel Visser is Professor of Private Law at the University of Cape Town and currently Deputy Vice-Chancellor at UCT. His main work has been in the law of unjustified enrichment, comparative law and legal history. He was co-editor of the South African Law Journal from the end of 1999 until he took up his present post and he continues to serve on the boards of various scholarly journals. He has more than a 100 publications to his credit, including several books, of which Unjustified Enrichment (2008) counts as his most important contribution. He is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and of the World Academy of Arts and Science, an associate member of the International Academy of Comparative Law and a Fellow of the University of Cape Town.

Edition details

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1399571974
• ISBN 13: 9781399571975
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 576
• Editor: Elspeth Reid, Daniel Visser