Title: Contract codification and the English: some observations from the Indian Contract Act 1872
Abstract:The comparative legal historian, Professor Van Caenegem, has argued that ‘If common law stands for anything, it is absence of codes, and likewise civil law stands for codification’. He continues, ‘thr...The comparative legal historian, Professor Van Caenegem, has argued that ‘If common law stands for anything, it is absence of codes, and likewise civil law stands for codification’. He continues, ‘through a variety of political circumstances the English mind has come to associate codes with all that is abhorrent’. Perhaps the most extensive period of codification actually predated the birth of the common law, albeit that the Anglo-Saxon law codes cannot really be described as law codes in a modern sense. The last fifty years has seen a lessening of hostility towards codification in England, in some circles at least. Developments in mainland Europe may in the end have the final say. The recent publication of the Draft Common Frame of Reference has raised the possibility of a Europe-wide Code of private law of one sort or another. The exercise has been criticised, not least because it raises difficult questions about compatibility with domestic law. Formidable obstacles, political and practical, still have to be overcome before a European Code of private law can become a reality. Whether or not such a code is either desirable or possible is best left to those more qualified to judge. The aims of this chapter are the rather more modest ones of seeking to add historical gloss on the business of the codification of private law from an English perspective.Read More
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-10-08
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 1
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