Foundations of Private Law

• Presents an original theory of the core fields of private law: property, tort, contract and unjust enrichment, examining the principles on which private law depends
• Explores the relationships between the history of the common law and civil law, and how modern private law has emerged from historical developments

Readership: Comparative law scholars; scholars in legal history; and those working on the unification of European law.

James Gordley, Shannon Cecil Turner Professor of Jurisprudence, School of Law, University of California at Berkeley

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