Foundations Of Private Law: Property, Tort, Contract, Unjust Enr

Description: Foundations of Private Law is a treatise on the Western law of property, contract, tort and unjust enrichment in both common law systems and civil law systems. The thesis of the book is that underlying these fields of law are common principles, and that these principles can be used to explain the history and development of these areas. These underlying common principles are matters of common sense, which were given their archetypal expression by older jurists who wrote in the Aristotelian tradition. These principles shaped the development of Western law but can resolve legal problems which these older writers did not confront. Table of Contents: I THE ENTERPRISE; 1. Basic Principles; 2. Differences among Legal Systems; II PROPERTY; 3. Possession and Ownership; 4. The Extent of the Right to Use Property: Nuisance, Troubles de voisinage, and Immissionenrecht; 5. Private Modification of the Right to use Property: Servitudes; 6. Rights Annexed to the Use of Property: The Case of Water Rights; 7. Loss of Resources without the Owner's Consent: Necessity and Adverse Possession; 8. Acquisition of Resources without a Prior Owner's Consent: Minerals, Capture, Found Property; III TORTS; 9. The Structure of the Modern Civil and Common Law of Torts; 10. The Defendant's Conduct: Intent, Negligence, Strict Liability; 11. Liability in Tort for Harm to Reputation, Dignity, Privacy, and 'Personality'; 12. Liability in Tort for Pure Economic Loss; IV CONTRACTS; 13. Promises; 14. Mistake; 15. Impossibility and Unexpected Circumstances; 16. Promises to Make a Gift; 17. Promises to Exchange; 18. Liability for Breach of Contract; V UNJUST ENRICHMENT; 19. The Principle against Unjustified Enrichment; 20. Restitution without Enrichment?; 20. Remedies in Restitution