Overview
Gifts: A Study in Comparative Law is the first broad-based study of the law governing the giving and revocation of gifts ever attempted. Gift-giving is everywhere governed by social and customary norms before it encounters the law and the giving of gifts takes place largely outside of the marketplace. As a result of these two characteristics, the law of gifts provides an optimal lens through which to examine how different legal systems engage with social practice. The law of gifts is well-developed both in the civil and the common laws. Richard Hyland's study provides an excellent view of the ways in which different civil and common law jurisdictions confront common issues. The legal systems discussed include principally, in the common law, those of Great Britain, the United States, and India, and, in the civil law, the private law systems of Belgium and France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.Professor Hyland also serves a critique of the dominant method in the field, which is a form of functionalism based on what is called the praesumptio similitudinis, namely the axiom that, once legal doctrine is stripped away, developed legal systems tend to reach similar practical results. His study demonstrates, to the contrary, that legal systems actually differ, not only in their approach and conceptual structure, but just as much in the results.
Full Product Details
Author: Richard Hyland (Distinguished Professor, Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University Law School)
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:
Width: 23.40cm
, Height: 3.70cm
, Length: 15.60cm
Weight: 1.007kg
ISBN: 9780199843480
ISBN 10: 0199843481
Pages: 732
Publication Date: 23 February 2012
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
<br> Professor Hyland has written a work of massive but accessible comparative scholarship dealing with a problem that engages the attention of every legal system: how the law does and should regard gifts-with what mixture of permission, encouragement, and regulation. After setting the stage by reviewing the variety of social scientific treatments of the social meaning and significance of the gift, and explaining the utility and limitations of comparative studies, Hyland conducts a detailed, fascinating comparison of the approaches taken by the Western legal traditions. The book will be an indispensable resource for students of the gift, and of comparative law in general. <br>--Richard A. Posner, <br>Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit <br>Senior Lecturer, University of Chicago Law School <br><p><br> Hyland's exploration of why the legal mind so often concludes that gift giving is a danger to society is a work of scholarly comparison the likes of which we have not seen since Mauss's classic text. The book changes the terms of debate about the gift and is a must for anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers and historians and other scholars interested in the burgeoning multi-disciplinary literature on the gift. <br>--Chris Gregory, <br>Professor of Political and Economic Anthropology, University of Manchester <br><p><br> This book is masterful! The doctrinal material is extremely significant, consistently interesting, and exceptionally well done. The scholarly effort and intellect that went into this book are both obvious and staggering. <br>--Melvin A. Eisenberg, <br>Koret Professor of Law, Boalt Hall Law School, University of California, Berkeley <br><p><br> Richard Hyland's Gifts is a 'gift' to comparative law. Miraculously, this learned exposition of the law surrounding the practice of gifts is a page-turner. Going far back in time and widely across the world's legal systems, Prof. Hyland has produced a masterpiece, showing how the
Author Information
Richard Hyland is Distinguished Professor of Law at Rutgers University School of Law and an internationally recognized scholar of comparative law. He's received his M.F.A. in fiction from Columbia University, a Diplôme d'Études Approfondies (LL.M.) from the University of Paris 2, was a Fulbright Scholar at the Universities of Rome and Messina in Italy. He received his J.D. at the Boalt Hall Law School in the University of California, Berkley and his A.B. at Harvard College. Prof. Hyland's honors and services include the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Academy of Comparative Law, and the American Law Institute.
