Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Landmark Cases in Contracts

Here’s another volume in Hart’s Landmark Cases series that is now out in paperback: Landmark Cases in the Law of Contract, edited by Charles Mitchell and Paul Mitchell, both of University College London. We missed the hardback version when it came out in 2008, so here is the full account. From the press:
Media of Landmark Cases in the Law of ContractLandmark Cases in the Law of Contract offers twelve original essays by leading contract scholars. As with the essays in the companion volumes in this series, each essay takes as its focus a particular leading case, and analyses that case in its historical or theoretical context. The cases range from the early eighteenth- to the late twentieth-centuries, and deal with an array of contractual doctrines. Some of the essays call for their case to be stripped of its landmark status, whilst others argue that it has more to offer than we have previously appreciated. The particular historical context of these landmark cases, as revealed by the authors, often shows that our current assumptions about the case and what it stands for are either mistaken, or require radical modification. The book also explores several common themes which are fundamental to the development of the law of contract: for instance, the influence of commercial expectations, appeals to 'reason' and the significance of particular judicial ideologies and techniques.

TOC after the jump.

1 Coggs v Barnard (1703) DAVID IBBETSON

2 Pillans v Van Mierop (1765) GERARD MCMEEL

3 Carter v Boehm (1766) STEPHEN WATTERSON

4 Da Costa v Jones (1778) WARREN SWAIN

5 Hochster v De La Tour (1853) PAUL MITCHELL

6 Taylor v Caldwell (1863) CATHARINE MACMILLAN

7 Smith v Hughes (1871) JOHN PHILLIPS

8 Foakes v Beer (1884) MICHAEL LOBBAN

9 Hongkong Fir Shipping Co v Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd, The Hongkong Fir (1961) DONAL NOLAN

10 Suisse Atlantique Société d'Armament SA v NV Rotterdamsche Kolen Centrale (1966) ROGER BROWNSWORD

11 Reardon Smith Lines Ltd v Yngvar Hansen-Tangen, The Diana Prosperity (1976) MICHAEL BRIDGE

12 Johnson v Agnew (1979) CHARLES MITCHELL

You can read more about this collection here.