Some years ago, a state-of-play review of the study of Law and Society in Britain by Colin Campbell and Paul Wiles contained the almost rueful comment that ‘analytical jurisprudence and legal positivism… have proved of intimidating endurance as archetypes. As another commentator, Peter Goodrich, has noted recently, Neil MacCormick, one leading authority in the field, rejoined that ‘to confirm or confute these accounts it is necessary to take up some position in analytical philosophy and the philosophy of language. Goodrich's review of linguistics and contemporary legal philosophy indicated that this gauntlet has not been systematically taken up either by legal philosophers or even by those sociologists of law who have been most critical of the general features of legal positivism and the substantive theories legal positivists have themselves proposed.

In William & Glyn's Bank v Boland Mr Boland, the sole resgistered proprietor of a house, mortgaged it to a bank. On his inability to meet the repayments, the bank sought possession as a prelude to the exercise of its power of sale. The action of possession failed because Mrs Boland successfully claimed an overriding interest in the property. This claim was founded on her having substantially contributed to the purchase of the house, thereby obtaining an interest in it. This interest was enforceable against the bank because she was in actual occupation of the land at the time it acquired its interest with the result that, because of section 70(1)(g) of the Land Registration Act 1925, she had an overriding interest in the land.

To understand the rights in land of a person in the GDR the first task of an English lawyer is to consider the rules being applied in terms of concepts and institutions in operation in England. The GDR have opted for a ‘mixed’ property system, retaining ‘pure’ personal ownership (similar to the rights given to landowners under English law) alongside the socialist creatures: contractual rights (use-contracts) and the hybrid use-rights in public land. Property law has long provided for the creation of rights which provide at the outset for the conditions under which the right will end; this is one of the principal attributes of leasehold tenure in England. It is indeed striking how many of the characteristics of use rights can be discovered among the provisions and decisions upon the security of tenure of tenancies in England.

Through the ages many common legal values have developed in western Europe. Notwithstanding the differences in legal systems there is a remarkable uniformity in the basic concepts of legal thinking. All western European states are democracies with constitutional restrictions to the power of the government. They all have similar defences against absolutism and one of these defences is the protection of fundamental human rights against government interference. The existence of such legal restrictions is a distinguishing feature of western European politico-legal development.

It is an established principle that an individual who is adversely affected by a public nuisance may not sue in tort unless he can show that he has suffered ‘particular damage’ over and above that suffered by the general public. Traditionally the principle has been justified on the ground of prevention of multiplicity of suits. It is argued that unless the complainant's injury is in some way distinguishable from that suffered by the general public, the proper plaintiff is the Attorney General as the public's representative; otherwise the wrongdoer could be punished ‘a hundred times for the same cause’.