Private Law and Power

by Kit Barker (Editor), Simone Degeling (Editor), Karen Fairweather (Editor), Ross Grantham (Editor)

Overview

The aim of this edited collection of essays is to examine the relationship between private law and power-both the public power of the state and the 'private' power of institutions and individuals. Its objectives are to describe and critically assess the way that private law doctrines, institutions, processes, and rules express, moderate, facilitate, and control relationships of power. The aim is to scrutinise this subject from the viewpoints of both history and modernity. The various chapters of this work examine the dynamics of the relationship between private law and power from a number of different perspectives-historical, theoretical, doctrinal, and comparative. They have been commissioned from leading experts in the field of private law, from several different Commonwealth Jurisdictions (Australia, the UK, Canada and New Zealand), each with expertise in the particular sphere of their contribution. The contributers aim to illuminate the past and assist in resolving some contemporary, difficult legal issues relating to the shape, scope, and content of private law and its difficult role and relationship with power. (Series: Hart Studies in Private Law, Vol. 22) [Subject: Private Law, Contract Law, Tort Law, Commercial Law, Equity & Trusts, Property Law, Legal History, Comparative Law]

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781509905997
Publisher:	Hart Publishing UK
Publication date:	12/01/2016
Series:	Hart Studies in Private Law Series
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

Table of Contents

Preface v

Foreword vii

Acknowledgements ix

List of Contributors xiii

Part 1 Issues

1 The Dynamics of Private Law and Power Kit Barker 3

Part 2 Power, History and Society

2 Power, History and the Law of Contract in Eighteenth Century England Warren Swain 31

3 Redressing Inequality in Personal Credit Transactions: 1700-1974 Karen Fairweather 53

4 Tort Law and Government Liability in the Administrative State Peter Cane 83

Part 3 Doctrines, Institutions and Process

5 Property and Power: The Judicial Redistribution of Proprietary Rights Craig Rotherham 107

6 Trustees' Powers and Social Justice Matthew Harding 137

7 Undue Influence and the Spiritual Economy Simone Degeling 159

8 A Public Law Tort: Understanding Misfeasance in Public Office Donal Nolan 177

9 Public Power, Discretion and the Duty of Care Kit Barker 207

10 The Legitimacy of the Company as a Source of (Private) Power Ross Grantham 239

11 Reshaping Responsibility: The Emerging Private Law of Institutional Wrongs Mayo Moran 263

12 Class Actions: Uses and Abuses of the Process of Courts Justice Philip McMurdo 285

Index 301