Foundations of Private Law Property, Tort, Contract, Unjust Enrichment [Paperback]

Foundations of Private Lawis a treatise on the Western law of property, contract, tort and unjust enrichment in both common law and civil law systems. It describes the doctrines that govern these fields of law and identifies principles that can explain both the similarities and differences between them.

The thesis of the book is that underlying these fields of law are common principles, and that these principles can be used to explain the history and development of these areas. These underlying common principles are matters of common sense, which were given their archetypal expression by older jurists who wrote in the Aristotelian tradition. These principles shaped the development of Western law but can resolve legal problems which these older writers did not confront.

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: Reml3/