BOOK: Bartłomiej WRÓBLEWSKI, State Liability and the Law: A Historical and Comparative Analysis [Routledge Studies in Comparative Legal History, eds. Aniceto MASFERRER DOMINGO & Heikki PIHLAJAMÄKI] (London: Routledge, 2024), 250 p. ISBN 9781032354880

 

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Abstract:

This book explores the historical foundations of holding public authorities accountable for their acts, and discusses how and why the idea that the state should or should not be held liable became established in three significant jurisdictions. The issue of state liability for legislative acts is considered one of the most difficult and controversial problems in jurisprudence. This book analyses the development of concepts and institutions of liability for the acts of legislator pertaining to the general principles of state liability until the mid-20th century in the leading European legal systems: Germany, France and Great Britain. It is shown that, in contrast to the prevailing conviction, the lack of liability for law-making instruments was not an unassailable dogma, and that questions as to whether such liability was possible were being asked from the Middle Ages onwards. The book will be a valuable resource for academics and researchers in the areas of Constitutional Law, Public Law, History of Law, History of Legal and Political Thought, Philosophy of Law, and Comparative Legal Studies.

Table of contents:

Acknowledgements

List of abbreviations

Introduction

Part One : The Institutions and Concepts of State Liability in Selected Legal Systems until the End of the 18th Century

Chapter I: Ancient Greece and Rome

Chapter II: The Middle Ages

Chapter III: The early modern era

Summary of Part One

Part Two: The Development of Contemporary Systems of State Liability for Acts of the Public Authorities

Chapter IV: Germany

Chapter V: France

Chapter VI: England

Summary of Part Two

Part Three: The Problems Associated with State Liability for Legislative Acts

Chapter VII: Liability for acts of the legislator in German scholarship and law

Chapter VIII: Recognition of liability for acts of the legislator in French scholarship and law

Chapter IX. The dogma of lack of liability for acts of the legislator in English scholarship and law

Summary of Part Three

Concluding remarks

On the author:

Bartłomiej Wróblewski is an Assistant Professor of Law at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Poland.

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