"Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth": The Costs and Benefits of Mixed Legal Systems

Article by Lord Rodger of Earlsferry

In the following Article, developed from comments delivered at the Congress on Mixed Jurisdictions, Lord Rodger of Earlsferry highlights several unique benefits of legal systems which have been influenced by and draw from both civil and common law traditions.

The author discusses “floating charges,” contract, negligence, and unjust enrichment with a focus on Scottish and English jurisprudence in these areas and, in consequence, identifies particular advantages of the “mixed” juridical mindset.

In his discussion, the author lauds both the “systematic exposition” of civil law and the reasoning spirit of the common law: two traditions with combined benefit in the mixed system.

The author concludes by counselling caution in the contemporary movement toward European unity, which, he argues, may result in the extinction of the benefits of mixed systems.


About the Author

Lord Rodger of Earlsferry. FBA. Lord of Appeal in Ordinary; formerly Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General of Scotland.

Citation

78 Tul. L. Rev. 419 (2003)