Justice McHugh once said that a lack of understanding of legal history was a misfortune, not a privilege. That was an understatement. As well as being essential for any Australian lawyer, the history underlying and informing the Australian legal system is a uniquely interesting amalgam of English, American and local developments.\n\nThe two volumes of Historical Foundations of Australian Law set the very highest standards of analysis and scholarship. Each is introduced by a useful and perceptive commentary by James Watson. Together, they contain 31 essays by distinguished judges and practitioners and academics. Although each essay is self-contained, in combination they yield a rich analysis of how Australian law has reached its present state.\n\nThe first volume, Institutions, Concepts and Personalities, contains incisive assessments of key figures such as Sir Owen Dixon and Justice Joseph Story (by Justices Hayne and Allsop respectively), and of key developments such as the establishment of an Australian land law, the reception of the common law, the growth to nationhood, the changing role of precedent and the separation of powers. There are essays on the very early influences on Australian law from the leading early texts (Glanvill and Bracton), from early English statutes and from Roman law. There are essays on the growth of equity, and even a modern dialogue on the Judicature legislation. And there are accounts of legal procedure, which is ultimately the source of much substantive law, and of the jurisprudential figures who have sought to analyse law.\n\nThe second volume, Commercial Common Law, complements the first: distinguished judges, practitioners and academics write on many aspects of commercial practice, often viewed through more than one prism. Thus there are chapters on money and bills of exchange, and cheques and banking, and on the actions often associated with them (notably debt and conversion), and on Lord Mansfield’s contribution to commercial law. There are chapters on how the basic elements of the law of torts and contract came into existence, from a variety of perspectives. There are analyses of privilege, defamation, assignment and implied terms. There are chapters on corporations, agency and insolvency, and a notable one on restitution (by Ian Jackman SC) that poses a challenge to thinking which has become orthodox outside Australia.\n\nThese volumes are a very distinguished contribution to Australian legal literature, and the essays will bear reading and re-reading.
Edited by:
Justin Gleeson,
J.A. Watson ,
Ruth Higgins,
Elisabeth Peden
Imprint: Federation Press
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 1.784kg
ISBN: 9781862879379
ISBN 10: 1862879370
Pages: 1040
Publication Date: 03 July 2013
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Volume I - Institutions, Concepts and Personalities Introduction A Sketch, J A Watson The Common Law Courts: Origins, Writs and Procedure, N Manousaridis Reception of Roman Law in the Common Law, A R Emmett Glanvill to Bracton: The Two Great Early Legal Treatises, J T Gleeson Early Statutes Shaping the Common Law, J S Emmett The Development of the Conscience of Equity, F T Roughley Five Judicature Fallacies, M J Leeming Invisible Cargo: The Introduction of English Law into Australia, J Stoljar Australian Land Law, P M Lane Colonies to Dominion, Dominion to Nation, S Kenny Building a Nation: The Doctrine of Precedent in Australian Legal History, G C Lindsay The Separation of Powers and the Unity of the Common Law, J T Gleeson & R A Yezerski Justice Joseph Story, J L B Allsop & A Foong Sir Owen Dixon, K M Hayne The Jurisprudes, R C A Higgins. Volume II - Commercial Common Law Introduction A Sketch II: Praecipe to Negligence & Contract, J A Watson A Note on the Curious Incidents of Debt, C J R Duncan & J A Watson Trespass, The Action on the Case and Tort, M Lunney Detinue, Trover and Conversion, J Randall & B Edgeworth The Sources of Defamation Law, D Rolph Legal Professional Privilege, P Brereton Milestones in Negligence in the 19th and Early 20th Century, B McDonald Contract Development Through the Looking-Glass of Implied Terms, E Peden Why the History of Restitution Matters, I M Jackman Lord Mansfield, B R Kremer Money and Bills of Exchange, A McNaughton The History of Cheques and Banking, A McNaughton Assignment, G J Tolhurst Agency, R A Dick Corporations, M Wibisono The History of Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law in England and Australia, J L B Allsop & L Dargan.
Reviews for Historical Foundations of Australian Law - Set: Volume I & Volume II
'More importantly, each of its essayists is a person whose contribution is worth reading ... [The volumes] create an important and valuable resource and make accessible to Australian lawyers, students and judges, in a convenient way, an array of materials which would otherwise require resort to a range of disparate texts and law review articles.' 'This book is a rich source of reference ... I venture to say it is unique. I certainly hope that it will find its place among legal history courses in more than one law school and in more places than Sydney.' Chief Justice Robert French launching both volumes, 22 August 2013.
