This volume explores the relationship between form and substance in the law of obligations. It builds on the rich tradition of legal thought that deploys the concepts of form and substance to inform our understanding of the common law. The essays in this collection offer multiple conceptions of form and substance and cover an array of private law subjects, scholarly approaches and jurisdictions. The collection makes it clear that the interplay between form and substance is a key element of the dynamism that characterises this area of the law.

Excerpt from Some Leading Principles of Anglo-American Law: Expounded With a View to Its Arrangement and Codification It is plain that the condition of our law, as to its form, is fast becoming unbearable. Whatever may be said in praise of its sub stance, and much may with truth be said, it. Must be acknowledged to be shapeless, chaotic, bewildering, without any sufficiently intel ligible arrangement or an orderly and clear exhibition of its princi ples, a mountainous stack of precedents. As longas the bulk of it was small this state of things, though an evil could be endured; but now the reported decisions from which legal rules and principles must be picked piecemeal are multiplying so fast - and there seems to be no way of stopping them - that the law is becoming inaccessi ble even to lawyers and judges to a very undesirable extent. The only remedy for this that I can see is a complete and systematic arrangement of the whole body of the law, not a mere general sketch in outline but specific and in minute detail so that the principle or rule applicable to any given case can be seen to have its proper place in it, generally accepted by lawyers, writers upon law and legisla tors. Probably this would be best accomplished ia a code, which would have authority as well as persuasiveness; but before such a code as is needed could be made at all the substance of it must already have become widely known and agreed upon. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

What makes an argument in a law case good or bad? Can legal decisions be justified by purely rational argument or are they ultimately determined by more subjective influences? These questions are central to the study of jurisprudence, and are thoroughly and critically examined in Legal Reasoning and Legal Theory, now with a new and up-to-date foreword. Its clarity of explanation and argument make this classic legal text readily accessible to lawyers, philosophers, and any general reader interested in legal processes, human reasoning, or practical logic.