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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 October 2017
Anyone familiar with French legal education will know that what a common lawyer would call the contents page to be found at the beginning (often in summary form) or at the end (often in detail) of a French textbook or monograph on law is more than a mere guide for browsers and readers. It forms le plan, that is to say the epistemological framework the intellectual importance of which is equal to the substance of the work. It is what endows the book with its scientific credibility and any thesis or textbook lacking a coherent cartesian plan will by definition lack intellectual credibility. But what of the other guide provided in many academic books, namely the index? Is this guide nothing but a guide, never to be allowed to aspire to an epistemological status like that accorded to le plan? Or is an index, with its strictly alphabetical ordering, capable of having an epistemological role?
1 Watson, A, ‘The Importance of “Nutshells”’ (1994) 42 American Journal of Comparative Law 1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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3 Karl Popper developed his falsification test as a means of determining whether or not an assertion was a scientific statement (as opposed to a non-scientific statement such as ‘God loves man’). A scientific statement is one that was capable of being falsified by experience: Popper, K, The Logic of Scientific Discovery (London, Hutchinson & Co, 1959) (reprint London, Routledge, 2002) 18 Google Scholar. Thus the statement ‘all swans are white’ (Popper’s own example) is a scientific one because it can be falsified by the appearance of a black swan.
4 See Birks, ‘Definition and Division’, above n 2.
5 Nothing in this contribution should be taken as suggesting that taxonomy in law is not of importance; consequently the present author has no difficulty in endorsing the late Professor Birks’ views in ‘Roman Law in Twentieth-century Britain’, above n 2. What is being suggested is that different epistemological schemes can reveal different types of knowledge (or at least different perspectives on knowledge).
6 Another example might be government contracts which now seems to be a subject capable of being separated from general contract courses: see, eg Vincent-Jones, P, The New Public Contracting (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006)Google Scholar; Davies, A, The Public Law of Government Contracts (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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14 Ibid.
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17 In fairness Professor Birks does not dismiss the importance of contextual categories; they serve as a ‘factual focus on a particular aspect of life identified as any layman would identify it’: Birks, ‘Definition and Division’, above n 2, 34.
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31 D & C Builders Ltd v Rees [1966] 2 QB 617.
32 Attica Sea Carriers Corporation v Ferrostaal [1976] 1 Ll Rep 250.
33 Ibid, 255.
34 Ibid.
35 The index should, then, list ‘Specific performance’ with two sub-entries of ‘in equity’ and ‘in common law’.
36 Co-operative Insurance Society Ltd v Argyll Stores Ltd [1998] AC 1.
37 Cass.3e ch.civ 11.6.2005; D.2005.IR.1504. A translation of this can be found in Graziano, T, Comparative Contract Law: Cases, Materials and Exercises (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009) 236–37CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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41 Hedley Byrne & Co v Heller & Partners Ltd [1964] AC 465. Should ‘misstatement’ and ‘misrepresentation’ be listed separately in the index? Certainly ‘reliance’ should be listed.
42 The index is thus able to connect particular cases with particular reasoning concepts and devices.
43 Jackson v Horizon Holidays [1975] 1 WLR 1468.
44 See eg Pickett v British Rail Engineering Ltd [1980] AC 126.
45 See Code civil Art 1384.
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50 RG 3 February 1914 RGZ 84.125; an English translation of this case can be found in Beale, H, Fauvarque-Cosson, B, Rutgers, J et al (eds), Cases, Materials and Text on Contract Law 2nd edn (Oxford, Hart Publishing, 2010) 1105 Google Scholar.
51 Code civil Arts 1147–48.
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55 Pichonnaz, above n 53, 29–34, 174–75.
56 PECL Art 6.111; UNIDROIT Arts 6.2.1–6.2.3. See now Draft Common Frame of Reference art III-1:110.
57 CE 30.3.1916, D 1916.3.25 (the famous Gaz de Bordeaux case).
58 But cf Fages, above n 54.
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62 French New Code of Civil Procedure Art 31.
63 Ulpian used the word utilitas: see D.1.1.1.2.
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68 So the argument goes, but such a thesis might not stand up to scrutiny: see very generally Lloyd and Freemen, above n 65, 620–27.
69 Staffs Area Health Authority v South Staffs Waterworks Co [1978] 1 WLR 1387.
70 Co-operative Insurance Society Ltd v Argyll Stores Ltd [1998] AC 1.
71 Davis Contractors Ltd v Fareham UDC [1956] AC 696, 728.
72 Ibid.
73 Upjohn LJ in Financings Ltd v Baldock [1963] 2 QB 104 at 115.
74 Constantine (Joseph) SS Ltd v Imperial Smelting Corporation [1942] AC 154.
75 Cf, Code civil Art 1147 with Arts 1382 and 1383.
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82 Barker v Corus UK Ltd [2006] 2 AC 572.
83 Rothwell v Chemical & Insulating Co [2008] 1 AC 281.
84 See Transfield Shipping Inc v Mercator Shipping Inc [2009] 1 AC 61.
85 For a discussion in English see Beale, Fauvarque-Cosson, Rutgers et al, above n 50, 721–25.
86 Unidroit Principles for International Commercial Contracts Art 5.1.4.
87 Ibid Art 5.1.4(2).
88 Ibid, Art 5.1.4(1).
89 Raineri v Miles [1981] AC 1050, 1086.
90 See, eg Sale of Goods Act 1979 s 14; Frost v Aylesbury Dairy Co Ltd [1905] 1 KB 608.
91 Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s 13.
92 Platform Funding Ltd v Bank of Scotland [2009] QB 426.
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95 Farley v Skinner [2002] 2 AC 732.
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98 See Women’s Own, 31 October 1987.
99 D.5.1.76.
100 See, eg Birks, Classification of Obligations, above n 2.
101 J.3.13pr.
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104 See, eg Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977.
105 Ibbetson, above n 26, 289.
106 Ibid, 264–93.
107 Although this is not to argue that the institutional scheme should be absent from any first year UK law syllabus: see Birks, ‘Law in Twentieth-century Britain’, above n 2, 260–63.
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114 D.3.45.10.1.
115 D.47.2.36.3.
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117 Ibid.
118 Ibid.
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125 Ibid, 173.
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133 Even if the role of reasonableness can be compared functionally with the role of principles like good faith and abuse of rights in the civil law, this does not really affect the argument that the essence of reasonableness is better expressed in an index rather than in un plan. The argument is not that the index should present an epistemological challenge to le plan; the argument is that the index will reveal things that le plan will not reveal.
134 Boarini, S, ‘Collection, comparaison, concerntation: Le traitement du cas, de la casuis tique moderne aux conférences de consensus’ in Passeron, J-C and Revel, J (eds), Penser par cas (Paris, Éditions de l’école des hautes études en sciences sociales, 2005) 129, 133–36Google Scholar.
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139 Rylands v Fletcher (1866) LR 1 Ex 265 (Ex); (1868) LR 3 HL 330 (HL).
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141 See Mirvahedy v Henley [2003] 2 AC 491.
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145 Ibid, 102.
146 Ibid, 41.
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148 Zweigert and Kötz, above n 112, at 34.
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