Fundamental Concepts of Commercial Law: 50 Years of Reflection

This rich compendium brings together selected key essays on the fundamental concepts and policy issues of English domestic commercial law by Professor Sir Roy Goode QC. Professor Goode is one of the most influential commercial law scholars of the last half-century and his works, which include deep analysis of previously unexplored issues, are characterized by an ability to express the most complex ideas in language of crystal clarity. The essays are grouped thematically into sections, each accompanied by an introduction from the author which sets the essays in their historical and modern context. This valuable authorial insight illuminates the way the law has developed since, and often as a result of, the publication of the papers. Further new material, written especially for this volume, includes a new essay 'Res Cogitans: Food for Thought'. Spanning a career of over fifty years, these innovative and forward-thinking essays broke new ground at the time of their orginal publication and continue to influence decisions and legal thinking to this day, both in the UK and abroad.

PART I. INSTALMENT CREDIT LAW 1: Some Problems of Hire-Purchase Law 2: Reflections on Credit Law PART II. CONTRACT LAW 3: Abstract Payment Undertakings 4: Inalienable Rights? 5: Contractual Prohibitions Against Assignment PART III. CONCEPTS OF PERSONAL PROPERTY 6: Ownership and Obligation in Commercial Transactions 7: The Nature and Transfer of Rights in Dematerialised and Immobilised Securities 8: Are Intangible Assets Fungible? PART IV. COMMERCIAL LAW 9: Concepts of Payment in Relation to the Expropriation or Freezing of Bank Deposits 10: The Concept and Implications of a Market in Commercial Law 11: The Shaping of Commercial Law 12: The Codification of Commercial Law 13: Removing the Obstacles to Commercial Law Reform 14: The Res Cogitans: Communis Error Facit Ius? PART V. SECURED TRANSACTIONS 15: Charges over Book Debts: A Missed Opportunity 16: Charge-backs and Legal Fictions 17: The Case for the Abolition of the Floating Charge 18: The Modernisation of Personal Property Security Law PART VI. UNJUST ENRICHMENT AND RESTITUTION 19: The Bank's Right to Recover Money Paid on a Stopped Cheque 20: Property and Unjust Enrichment 21: Proprietary Restitutionary Claims PART VII. CORPORATE INSOLVENCY 22: Is the Law too Favourable to Secured Creditors? 23: The Avoidance of Transactions in Insolvency Proceedings and Restiutionary Defences 24: The Perpetual Trustee Case PART VIII. Occupational Pensions 25: Defining and Protecting the Pension Promise 26: Occupational Pensions: Securing the Pension Promise PART IX. LEGAL EDUCATION 27: The Academic Stage of Legal Education: A Non-Vocational View 28: The Teaching and Applications of Fundamental Concepts of Commerical Law 29: The European Law School