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Twentieth century developments in commercial law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

R. M. Goode
R. M. Goode*
Affiliation:
Queen Mary College, University of London
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Extract

In the 75 years since the Society of Public Teachers of Law came into being there has been a revolution in the conduct of business operations. Methods of transport have been transformed; commercial transactions have increased vastly in size, in number and in complexity; a whole range of new contract structures and financing techniques has evolved; and the receipt, storage and transmission of information and instructions have been completely changed by new technology.

If it be right that commercial law is rooted in the customs and practices of merchants we could reasonably expect to find a parallel transformation in English commercial law, a reappraisal of fundamental concepts, a wholesale jettisoning of nineteenth century statutes and case law. It is a matter for some astonishment that this has not occurred.

Type
Research Article
Information
Legal Studies , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , November 1983 , pp. 283 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Legal Scholars 1983

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References

1. H. Dakin & Co Ltd v Lee [1916] 1 KB 566

2. [1933] AC 470.

3. Ibid, per Lord Atkin at 479.

4. Equitable Trust Co of New York v Dawson Partners Ltd (1927) 27 L LR 49; Moralice (London) Ltd v E. D. & F. Man Ltd [1954] 1 Lloyd's Rep 526. But see now Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (1974 revision), art 34(b).

5. [1976] QB 44.

6. Ibid, per Lord Denning MR at 63.

7. Hong Kong Fir Shipping Co Ltd u Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd [1976] 2 QB 26; Astley Industrial Trust Ltd v Grimley [1963] 1 WLR 584.

8. The Laconia [1976] QB 835.

9. See The Petrofina [1949] AC 76; The Georgios C [1977] 1 QB 488, overruled in The Laconia [1977] AC 850; The Laconia [1976] QB 835; revsd [1977] AC 850; The Mihalios Xilas [1979] 1 All ER 657; revsd [1979] 2 All ER 1044; The Chikuma [1979] 1 Lloyd's Rep 367; revsd [1981] 1 Lloyd's Rep 371. The Court of Appeal decisions have been extra-judicially condemned as heretical in no uncertain terms by Lord Roskill in his 1981 Holdsworth Club Presidential Address, Half-a-Century of Commerical Law 1930–1890, pp. 5–7. For a different view of the wisdom of the House of Lords in The Chikuma, see A. H. Hermann Judges, Lam and Businessmen p. 220 (‘Lords opt for nonsense’).

10. The Scaptrade [1983] 1 All ER 301; affd [1983] 2 All ER 763.

11. Karsales (Harrow) Ltd v Wallis [1956] 2 All ER 866 at 869, per Denning LJ.

12. Ibid; Charterhouse Credit Co Ltd v Tolly [1963] 2 QB 683.

13. Suisse Atlantique Société d'Armement Maritime SA v NV Rotterdamschc Kolen Centrale [1967] AC 361.

14. Harbutt's ‘Plasticine’ Ltd v Wayne Tank & Pump Co Ltd [1970] 1 QB 477.

15. [1980] AC 827.

16. See the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.

17. Hamzeh Malas & Sons Ltd v British Imex Industries Ltd [1958] 2 QB 127; Discount Records Ltd v Barclays Bank Ltd [1975] 1 WLR 315.

18. See Clerk & Lindsell on Torts (15th edn) Ch 15.

19. For a detailed discussion see Cohen-Grabelsky, Nili ‘Interference with Contractual Relations and Equitable Doctrines’ (1982) 45 MLR 241 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20. Andrews v Hopkinson [1957] 1 QB 229.

21. The Euryrmedon [1975] AC 154; The New York Star [1980] 3 All ER 257. See infra.

22. Junior Books Ltd v Veitchi Co Ltd [1982] 3 All ER 20 1. See post, p. 290.

23. Beswick v Beswick [1968] AC 58.

24. [1975] AC 154, followed in The New York Star [1980] 3 All ER 257.

25. See Code, R. M. Commercial Law pp. 298–301 Google Scholar.

26. Contrast the position in American law, as enunciated in the Restatement, Contracts 2d, para 251.

27. [1932] AC 562.

28. Candler v Crane, Christmas & Co [1951] 2 KB, Denning LJ dissenting.

29. Hedly Byrne & Co Ltd v Heller & Partners [1964] AC 465.

30. Lambert v Lewis [1980] 1 All ER 978, revsd on other grounds [1981] 1 All ER 1185; Spartan Steel & Alloys Ltd v Martin & Co (Contractors) Ltd [1973] 1 QB 27.

31. Esso Petroleum Co Ltd v Marden [1976] QB 801; Midland Bank Trust Co Ltd v Hett, Stubbs & Kemp [1979] Ch 384.

32. [1982] 3 All ER 201.

33. Submitted to the Council in 1976.

34. Goodhart & Jones, (1980) 43 MLR 489.

35. See, for example, Re Hallett's Estate (1980) 13 ChD 696; Re Diplock [1948] Ch 465; affd sub. nom. Ministry of Health u Simpson [1951] AC 251.

36. Aluminium Industrie Vaassen BV v Romalpa Aluminium Ltd [1976] 1 Lloyd's Rep 443.

37. Supra.

38. Report of the Committee on Consumer Credit (Cmnd. 4596, 1971), Ch 5.7.

39. Insolvency Law and Practice (Cmnd. 8558, 1982), paras 1623, 1639.

40. Cf Hanbury & Maudsley Modern Equity (11 th edn) pp. 394–398.

41. Manchester Trust v Furness [1895] 2 QB 539 at 545, per Lindley LJ.

42. See Selangor United Rubber Estates Ltd u Cradock (No 3) [1968] 1 WLR 1555; Rowlandson v National Westminster Bank Ltd [1978] 1 WLR 798. The duty is less onerous where the bank receives money for a customer rather than on its own account. See Belmont Finance Corpn Ltd v Williams Furniture Ltd (No 2) [1980] 1 All ER 393.

43. Administration of Justice Act 1970, s. 3.

44. See RSC Ord 14.

45. So named after Mareva Companiera SA of Panama v International Bulk Carriers SA [1975] 2 Lloyd's Rep 509. The case law and literature have become prodigious.

46. Anton Pillar KG v Manufacturing Processes Ltd [1976] Ch 55. The remedy has become so popular that it is almost possible to make a career at the Bar devoted soley to Anton Pillar orders!

47. Commercial Law in a Changing Economic Climate (2nd edn) p. 18.

48. See, for example, the Hague-Visby Rules and their intended successor the Hamburg Rules (carriage of goods by sea); and Warsaw Convention (carriage by air).

49. Uniform Law on the International Sale of Goods, and its successor the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (not yet operative).