BOOK REVIEW: Simon STERN on The reasonable person: a legal biography by Valentin Jeutner (Comparative Legal History, XIII (2025), nr. 1 (June), pp. 180-186)

(Image source: Taylor&Francis)

Valentin Jeutner sets out to understand the reasonable person’s ‘double life’ as an ‘unpretentious but powerful legal standard and as the common law’s most legendary but also most controversial character’–one that ‘features in virtually all areas of law’, populating areas such as contracts, torts, criminal law and administrative law. Jeutner explains at the outset that the standard’s most important feature is that it demands attention to ‘the perspective of another’: whatever particular traits it embodies, ‘the reasonable person figure is not you’. After a short introduction that previews the argument and collects some of the faux-jocular character sketches that judges and lawyers have composed over time, the book begins a historical review of some of the figure’s precursors and then considers its spread and various instantiations.

To read the full review, please click here. Online access is free for members of the European Society for Comparative Legal History. For further information about the volume on our blog, please visit here.

DOI: 10.1080/2049677X.2025.2500222

BOOK: Yves MAUSEN (dir.), La culture judiciaire anglaise au Moyen Âge, IIe partie [Histoire du droit et des institutions] (Paris: Mare & Martin, 2024), 406 p. ISBN 978-2-38600-031-7, € 39

 

(image source: Mare & Martin)

Abstract:

Le présent volume prend la suite d’un précédent recueil d’articles consacré, déjà, à l’histoire de la procédure du common law. S’il se concentre plus exclusivement sur les origines médiévales de celle-ci et sur ses mécanismes propres, il ne s’interdit cependant pas d’étendre par ailleurs son champ d’investigation à des aspects matériels. Telle est en effet la nature du droit anglais, que sa substance se nourrit des actions judiciaires. Le lecteur retrouvera ainsi un certain nombre de thèmes, abordés d’un point de vue complémentaire au premier volume, comme le droit du témoignage ou le trespass. Il en découvrira d’autres, qui jettent une lumière nouvelle sur des questions pourtant aussi classiques que les rapports du common law avec la coutume ou avec le droit romain, ou encore le sens originel du due process of law. Toujours suivant la méthodologie éprouvée, qui allie l’exploitation des fonds d’archives à la présentation de cas d’espèce, s’y ajoutent des considérations plus techniques sur les bills of privilege, le privilège de clergie, ou le duel judiciaire.

On the editor:

Yves Mausen, professeur agrégé des Facultés de droit, est titulaire de la Chaire d’histoire du droit et de droit des religions à l’Université de Fribourg (Suisse). Il a été élève de l’Ecole normale supérieure et membre de l’Institut universitaire de France. 

 Read more here.

BOOK: Andrew J. BELL & Joanna MCCUNN, Uncertainty in Comparative Law and Legal History. Known Unknowns [Transforming Legal Histories, eds. Lydia HAYES, Katie RICHARDS, Russell SANBERG & Sharon THOMPSON] (London: Routledge, 2024), 346 p. ISBN 9781032873756, 116 GBP

 

Abstract:

Laws are imposed on facts. But what is the law to do when its rules for establishing facts do not—because they cannot—produce a satisfactory answer? Scenarios that raise this intractable uncertainty problem have been treated as isolated concerns, but are in fact endemic across legal systems. They can cross jurisdictional and doctrinal boundaries, have recurred throughout history, and demand creative thinking from those faced with them. This book explores the law’s understandings of and responses to such situations from a comparative historical perspective. It investigates how the law has framed these most difficult problems of uncertainty; dealt with uncertainty’s often unclear boundaries; and developed a broad range of different responses to solve or avoid it, across doctrine, time, and jurisdiction. The work examines a selection of key uncertainty problems across private law as elements of a singular uncertainty issue endemic in legal systems. This analysis will be of interest to historians and comparatists, but also to doctrinal, theoretical, and other scholars and practitioners. The analysis leaves us better informed and better equipped for dealing with future scenarios where uncertainty arises, including insights beyond national and doctrinal confines.

Table of contents:

. Known unknowns: uncharted waters

Andrew J. Bell and Joanna McCunn

PART 1: Life and death

2. ‘In the beginning’: dealing with ‘unknowns’ at the start of life

Gwen Seabourne

3. Commorientes: deaths, disasters, disappearances

Andrew J. Bell

4. The subtle conclusion: epistemic uncertainty and law at the end of life

C.P. McGrath 

PART 2: Causation and loss

5. Causal uncertainty in tort law: the special case of mesothelioma

Ken Oliphant

6. Known unknowns: loss of a chance and intractable connections

Samantha Schnobel and Judith Skillen

7. Quantifying or avoiding the unknown? Damages for future lost earnings in tortious personal injury cases

David Messner-Kreuzbauer

PART 3: Meanings and intentions

8. Contractual interpretation and ad hominem rules of construction

Joanna McCunn

9. Unmixing intangible assets

Benjamin Douglas and Lorenzo Maniscalco

PART 4: Broader perspectives on law and uncertainty

10. A spectrum of uncertainty

Matthew Dyson

11. Known unknowns in Roman law: the second chapter of the lex Aquilia

David Ibbetson

PART 5: Conclusions

12. Known unknowns: tracing a map

Andrew J. Bell and Joanna McCunn

Editors:

Andrew J. Bell is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Bristol, UK, and a Fellow of the European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law. Joanna McCunn is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Bristol, UK.

Read more here.

BOOK: Felix Andreas KIEFNER, Besitz als relatives Eigentum? - Geschichte und Dogmatik des Besitzschutzes als Relativschutz im common law und im civil law [Studien zum ausländischen und internationalen Privatrecht; 531] (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2024), 372 p., ISBN 978-3-16-163872-5

 

ABOUT THE BOOK:

 

In der Tradition des civil law betont man unter Verweis auf den possessorischen Besitzschutz regelmäßig, dass Eigentum und Besitz grundverschieden seien. Nach common law hingegenerwirbt jeder Besitzer zum Zeitpunkt der Besitzerlangung zugleich ein relatives Eigentum, welches gegen alle »schlechter berechtigten« Dritten wirkt und entsprechenden Rechtsschutz vermittelt. Finder, Diebe, Grundstücksbesetzer, Mieter, gescheiterte redliche Erwerber - sie alle sind relative Eigentümer. Doch auch im römischen und römisch-gemeinen Recht existierte für bestimmte Besitzertypen die Vorstellung eines relativen Eigentums, wovon sich in heutigen kontinentaleuropäischen Rechtsordnungen aber nur noch minimale Spuren finden. Wie hat sich die Vorstellung des Besitzes als relatives Eigentum in den Traditionen des common law und des civil law entwickelt? Welche Wertungen und Funktionen lagen und liegen ihr zugrunde? In welchen Fallgruppen des Besitzes kann sie überzeugen? Felix Kiefner untersucht diese Fragen in historisch-vergleichender Perspektive am Beispiel des englischen und des deutschen Rechts.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

 

Einführung
Teil 1: England und die Tradition des common law
Kapitel 1: Grundlagen
Kapitel 2: Besitzschutz im heutigen englischen Recht
Kapitel 3: Historische Grundlagen des Besitzschutzes im englischen Recht
Kapitel 4: Wertungen des Besitzschutzes im heutigen englischen Recht
Teil 2: Deutschland und die Tradition des civil law
Kapitel 5: Grundlagen
Kapitel 6: Der petitorische Besitzschutz (§ 1007 BGB)
Kapitel 7: Besitzschutz im Übrigen
Teil 3: Essenz und vergleichende Schlussbetrachtung
Kapitel 8: Dogmatische Ergebnisse
Kapitel 9: Modelle zur Erklärung des Relativschutzes
Kapitel 10: Überzeugungskraft des Relativschutzes – Fallgruppen und Wertungen

 

Find more here.

BOOK: Luka BURAZIN, Kenneth Einar HIMMA & Giorgio PINO (eds.), Jurisprudence in the Mirror. The Common Law Meets the Civil Law World (Oxford: OUP, 2024), 544 p. ISBN 9780192868688, 110 GBP

 

(image source: OUP)

Abstract:

There is something quite puzzling about the global conversation on jurisprudence. On the one hand, jurisprudence is supposed to deal with abstract questions concerning the nature, structure, and distinctive features of the law. These questions are not tightly associated with, or dependent on, the particular legal practices in one jurisdiction or another. But, on the other hand, it seems that jurisprudents are tacitly affected by their background institutional context: there is an evident divide between theorizing about the law in the civil law world and in the common law world. Jurisprudence in the Mirror: The Common Law World Meets the Civil Law World systematically presents the major achievements of contemporary civil law jurisprudence to the common law world and bridges the gap in analytic jurisprudence as it is currently practiced in the two traditions. The volume seeks to bring different voices to the table and overcome the cultural and linguistic divides that have created barriers in philosophical exchanges. The book's structure is dialogical: it includes twelve essays written by prominent and influential jurisprudents from the civil law world, each followed by a response by a jurisprudent from the common law world. This approach highlights what the two worlds share, where they part ways, and why. The varied contributions reveal how their respective legal traditions shape fundamental legal concepts and jurisprudential debates and will be invaluable to readers from both the civil and common law worlds.

On the authors:

Luka Burazin, Full Professor, University of Zagreb, Kenneth Einar Himma, Continuing Guest Professor, University of Zagreb, and Giorgio Pino, Full Professor of Philosophy of Law, Roma Tre University Luka Burazin is a full professor in legal theory at the University of Zagreb. In 2022 he was elected president of the Croatian section of IVR. He has published papers in journals Rechtstheorie, ARSP, Diritto e questioni pubbliche, Ratio Juris, Jurisprudence, Doxa, and in books by OUP, Edward Elgar and Springer. He co-edited books Law and State (Peter Lang 2015), Law as an Artifact (OUP 2018) and The Artifactual Nature of Law (Edward Elgar 2022). He is a co-editor of journal Revus. He has translated several legal theory books and a number of legal theory papers into Croatian. Kenneth Einar Himma is a continuing guest professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Zagreb. He has published extensively in the areas of philosophy of law, philosophy of information and information ethics, philosophy of religion, and applied ethics. He is the author of Morality and the Nature of Law (OUP 2019) and Coercion and the Nature of Law (OUP 2020). He has published well over 100 essays and book reviews in these various areas and is on the editorial boards of Legal Theory, Law and Philosophy, Ratio Juris, Revus, and other journals in the area. Giorgio Pino is Full Professor of Philosophy of Law at Roma Tre University. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the IVR. He has published 9 books (in Italian, four of which have been translated in Spanish), and several scholarly articles in various international journals such as Law and Philosophy, Ratio Juris, Doxa, Analisi e Diritto, Ragion Pratica, Diritto & Questioni Pubbliche. He has held visiting positions at, among others, the EUI, Paris 1-Sorbonne, and Columbia University.

More information here. 

 

CALL FOR PAPERS: Legal Transfer in the Common Law World (Toronto, 10-12 JUL 2025) (DEADLINE 31 AUG 2024)

 

(image source: Legal Transfer in the Common Law World)

The next Law and Empires’ conference (https://lhbe.org) is taking place in Toronto in July 2025 with a special stream, “Legal Transfer in the Common Law World.” 

This stream was held successfully in the Third Empires’ conference in Maynooth, with an edited collection forthcoming before the Toronto conference edited by Donal Coffey and Stefan Vogenauer. It is our intention to curate another edited collection of the stream on foot of the upcoming conference.

For more details on the stream, please see the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory’s website here (https://www.lhlt.mpg.de/research-field/legal-transfer-in-the-common-law-world) or see the CFP here (https://lhbe.org/cfp-for-legal-histories-of-empire-toronto-2025/). Abstracts due by August 31, 2024 at LHE2025conference@uts.edu.au

ARTICLE: Nicholas SANINIS, "Exemplary Damages Practice in late Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century England" (American Journal of Legal History)

 

(image source: OUP)

Abstract:

A longer perspective on the modern Anglo-American law of exemplary (or punitive) damages views it as having first begun to emerge after the cases of Huckle v Money and Wilkes v Wood were decided in 1763. This article seeks to further deepen and clarify this perspective. It does so by systematically tracing the evolution of the adjudicative practice according to which English civil juries awarded ‘exemplary damages’ from the period circa 1764 to the early nineteenth century. It shows that this practice scarcely ‘hardened into law’ in the aftermath of the Huckle and Wilkes decisions. In fact, as had been the case long before 1763, for a long time after it, jury determinations as to exemplary damages in common law tort actions remained entirely outside the control of any formal legal doctrine which either of these decisions were taken to have authoritatively recognized.

Read the full article here: DOI  10.1093/ajlh/njae005

PODCAST: Selden Society Lecture Series Australia (Supreme Court Library Queensland, iTunes/Spotify)

 

(image source: iTunes)

Abstract:

Join a variety of judicial officers, legal professionals and academics for this informative and provocative series of legal history lectures. Each episode presents a single story uncovering a unique aspect of our common law past. This might be literature or language, a fascinating event or item, a significant person, or the development of a legal idea. These lectures are recorded in the Banco Court, Brisbane, and are now available to the world.

Listen on Spotify or iTunes. 

CALL FOR PAPERS: The concept of Hazard, Legal historians PhD workshop - University of Lille [Deadline 15 DEC 2022]

 Call for Papers

The Hazard

 

The concept of hazard having the aim of protecting against the unforeseen, it is very logically in terms of insurance that we first see it emerge in the legal field. Thus, the first attempt to limit the risk appears in French law with the bottomry in the Middle Ages. Likewise, Common Law, with the case law Carter v. Boehm of 1766 focusing on the notion of good faith in terms of contracts, links the hazard with the insurance contract. 

Nevertheless, the definition of hazard is not limited to business law. The French jurist  G. Cornu states that « element of chance, of uncertainty which introduces, into the economy of an operation, a chance of gain or loss for those concerned  {...} is of the essence of certain contracts ». Thus encompassing both the random contract defined by article 1108 of the civil code «when the parties agree to make the effects of the contract, as regards the advantages and losses which will result from it, depend on an uncertain event» that the commutative contract, though supposed to be little subject to hazards. An accidental element can occur in this type of contract without systematically calling into question the commutative nature of the contract. Caton, taken over by Pompon ùius (D., XVIII,I, 8) didn't he consider that the sale of an object was nothing other than a « buying of the hazard » ?

However, limiting the hazard to a purely contractual vision would lead to the exclusion of many legal fields which are nevertheless concerned. Thus, institutional law, unless considering J.-J. Rousseau's social contract, as a real contract, would be excluded from it even though it is directly concerned by the desire to guard against the hazard. The example of the Roman Republic perfectly illustrates this link by its state of emergency system which allows the appointment of a dictator to handle a crisis, a hazard threatening the institutions of the Republic.The principle of choosing a man to deal with the risks and restore the institutional order will cross the ages. Thus, the Constitution of the Fifth French Republic can grant by its article 16, full powers to the head of the executive in order to manage a crisis that could threaten the institutions of the Republic. This constancy of the hazard through the ages is also found in other less visible laws, such as medical law, which is linked to this notion by the therapeutic hazard. The problem is already present under the Old Regime and multiplies with the medical experiments that take place from the 18th century. 

A contrario, some legal fields reject any reference to hazard, such as the law of war. Thus, the modern authors of jus gentium abandon the idea of subjecting war to chance (namely the drawing of lots) that Grotius had admitted in a few cases ('sortis aleae subiici belli exitus licite non semper potest', De iure belli ac pacis, III.20.42). Other fields which traditionally refuse the hazard, such as the climatic and environmental fields are beginning to accept this notion. None of the rules laid down to try to circumscribe the hazard is enough to prove that Mallarmé was wrong. Him who wrote that a throw of the dice had never abolish chance. This is undoubtedly the reason why the concept is the subject of new legal work permanently in positive law. One of the common points of these works is to make the management of the hazard depend on its form. : is it mere chance or risk, is risk a negative or a positive thing ?

A study day of PhD students at the Center d'Histoire Judiciaire de Lille, will be held on March 24, 2023, aims to conduct a legal and historical reflection on the contours of the notion of hazard, around oral presentation of a duration of 15 min in French or in English. Paper proposals, which are mainly aimed at doctoral students and young researchers, will be sent before Thursday, December 15, 2022 midnight to the following email address: doctorantchj@gmail.com. The text will be written in Times New Roman font of size 12 with a line spacing of 1.5 and must not exceed 4,000 characters (including spaces). PDF format is preferred. Communications must be in French or English.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I. Monographies  

- BAILLOT ( Philippe ), L’aléa, Paris, Dalloz, 2011  

- BÉNABENT ( Alain ), La chance et le droit, Paris, Libraire générale de droit et de jurisprudence, 1973  - BENSA ( M.E. ), Histoire du Contrat d’Assurance au Moyen-Âge, Paris, Albert Fontemoing, 1897  

- BESSIN ( Marc ) et al., Bifurcations : les sciences sociales face aux ruptures et à l’évènement, Paris, La  Découverte, 2016  

- CARBONNIER ( Jean ), Flexible droit, Paris, Librairie générale de droit et de jurisprudence, 1991  

- CORNU ( Gérard ), Vocabulaire juridique, Association Henri Capitant, Paris, Presses Universitaires de  France, 7e édition, 2005 

- DEMONT ( Bruno ), LEVENEUR ( Laurent ), L’aléa dans le contrat d’assurance, Paris, LGDJ-Lextenso  éditions, 2013  

- DOBRY ( Michel ), Sociologie des crises politiques : la dynamique des mobilisations multisectorielles,  Paris, Presses de la fondation nationale des sciences politiques, 2009 

- DOWNE ( Alexis ), La gestion des risques contractuels par le contrat : étude du droit français à la  lumière du droit anglais, Toulouse, Presses de l’Université de Toulouse, 2018  

- ETIER ( Guillaume ), Du risque à la faute : évolution de la responsabilité civile pour le risque du droit  romain au droit commun, Bruxelles, Bruylant Genève, 2006 

- FRYDMAN ( René ), FLIS-TRÈVES ( Muriel ), L’imprévu : Infortune ou opportunité ?, Paris, PUF, 2016  

- GABAYET ( Nicolas ), L’aléa dans les contrats publics en droit anglais et droit français, Issy-les Moulineaux, LGDJ, 2015  

- GAEL-RAGOT ( Génica ), Le risque de faillite : surveillance et gestion, Paris, Ed. comptable  Malesherbes, 1995  

- HEWARD (Edmund), Lord Mansfield : A Biography of William Murray 1st Earl of Mansfield 1705–1793 Lord Chief Justice for 32 years, London, Barry Rose, 1979 

- HONORAT ( Jean ), L’idée d’acceptation des risques dans la responsabilité civile, Paris, Librairie  générale de droit et de jurisprudence, 1969  

- KAHN ( Raymond ), La notion de l’aléa dans les contrats, Paris, Jouve, 1924  

- LACASSE ( Nicole ), La gestion des risques dans les contrats internationaux, Montréal, Wilson &  Lafleur, 1991  

- MACKAAY ( Ejan ), Les incertitudes du droit :, Uncertainty and the law, Montréal, Thémis, 1999 

- MATHIEU ( Anne-Laure ), Logique et raisonnement juridique, Paris, Presses universitaires de France,  2001  

- MATTÉI ( Jean-Mathieu ), Histoire du droit de la guerre ( 1700-1819 ). Introduction à l’histoire du droit  international, Marseille, Presses universitaires d’Aix-Marseille, 2015  

- MITCHELL (Charles), MITCHELL (Paul), Landmark Cases in the Law of Contract, Oxford, Hart publishing, 2008

- POTHIER ( Robert Joseph ), Traités des contrats aléatoires : selon les règles, tant du for de la  conscience, que du for extérieur, Paris, Debure père, Imp. du Roi, de l'Evêché, & de l'Université, 1770.

- ROSSI (Guido), Insurance in Elizabethan England: The London Code, Cambridge, Cambridge university press, 2016.

WILSON (Mark), Dictator: the evolution of the Roman dictatorship, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2021.

Call for Papers

- ROUX ( Jean-André ), La défense contre le crime : répression et prévention, Paris, Félix Alcan, 1922  

- SAISON ( JOHANNE ), Le risque médical : évolution de la responsabilité sans faute du service public  hospitalier, Paris, Éditions L’Harmattan, 1999  

- SANSÉVÉRINO-GODFRIN ( Valérie ), Le cadre juridique de la gestion des risques naturels, Paris, Ed  Tec& doc-Lavoisier, 2008 

- SIMON ( Anne ), L’imprévu et le droit, Paris, Mare & Martin, 2017  

- VERDUN ( Franck ), La gestion des risques juridiques, Paris, Ed. d’Organisation, 2006  

II. Articles  

- BABIN ( Audrey ) et al., « Le droit bousculé par l'imprévu. Actes du Séminaire de l'École doctorale du 15  juin 2012. Contribution du Master 2 Histoire du Droit », Revue juridique de l'Ouest, 2012-4, pp. 457-474 

- BONAH ( Christian ), GAUDILLIÈRE ( Jean-Paul ), « Faute, accident ou risque iatrogène ? La régulation  des événements indésirables du médicament à l’aune des affaires Stalinon et Distilbène », Revue française  des affaires sociales, no3-4, 2007, pp. 123-151 

- BRUNORI ( Luisa ), « Limitation de l’imprévu et protection contre l’imprévisible dans un contrat inédit  du Siglo de Oro espagnol », Rerum novarum ac veterum scientia. Mélanges en l’honneur de Brigitte  Basdevant-Gaudemet, M. Bégou-Davia, F. Demoulin-Auzary, F. Jankowiak (dir.), Mare & Martin, 2020,  pp. 185-198  

- GUYARD ( Nicolas ), « « Calamnitez extremes » et culte des reliques. Les catholiques face aux aléas  climatiques en France au XVIIe siècle », Histoire, monde et cultures religieuses, no40, 2016, pp. 13-25 

- HERVIEU ( Merryl ), « Pas d’aléa, pas d’assurance », Dalloz Actu Étudiant, 2021 

- MARTIN ( Dominique ), « L’indemnisation des victimes d’accidents médicaux et ses mécanismes de  financement », Les tribunes de la santé, no24, 2009, pp.29-40  

- TANGUY ( Jean-François ), « Les magistrats français et les aléas du XIXe siècle : trois générations, une  idée », Les praticiens du droit du Moyen-Âge à l’époque contemporaine, Rennes, Presses universitaires de  Rennes, 2008, pp. 239-254 

- THIVENAUD ( Jean-Marie ), « Le risque et son prix : Genèse d’un concept et de son évaluation juridico financière (XIVe-XVIIe siècles) », Revue d’économie financière, no37, 1996, pp.253-274 

- Y.D ( sic ), « L’aléa contractuel n’empêche pas la réduction judiciaire de la rémunération convenue entre  les parties », Dalloz Actu Étudiant, 2011  

III. Thesis  

- BROUSSY ( Charlotte ), Histoire du contrat d’assurance ( XVI-XXe siècles ), thèse dactyl., Université de  Montpellier, 2016  

- LIVET ( Benoît ), Aléas climatiques, catastrophes naturelles et sociétés dans le Puy-de-Dôme (1783 -  1876), mémoire dactyl., UFR Lettres, Culture et Sciences Humaines Clermont- Auvergne, 2021 

- MENAKANIST ( Twekiat ), Le hasard et l’incrimination, thèse dactyl., Université de Nancy 2, 1992 

- MINET ( Alice ), SEILLER ( Bertrand ), ALBERT ( Nathalie ), DELAUNAY ( Benoit ), PLESSIX  ( Benoit ), La perte de chance en droit administratif, thèse dactyl., 2013  

Call for papers 

- RODET-PROFIT ( Alix ), Le contrat d’assurance maritime à Rouen dans l’Ancien droit, thèse dactyl.,  Paris 2, 2015 

- SABLIER (B.), Les imprévus et les pouvoirs nouveaux de l’administration dans les marchés publics de  travaux, thèse dactyl. Nice, 1979 

- WILLIATTE-PELLITTERI ( Line ), Contribution à l’élaboration d’un droit civil de l’aléa, Lille, thèse  dactyl., 2003  

- ZOUHAL ( ADRA ), Le risque en droit pénal, thèse dactyl., Rennes 1, 2017