Unjustified Enrichment
Key Issues in Comparative Perspective

Comparative analyses of a range of key issues related to unjustified enrichment, an important area of private law.

David Johnston (Edited by), Reinhard Zimmermann (Edited by)

9780521808200, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 April 2002

792 pages
23.7 x 15.9 x 5.3 cm, 1.356 kg

Review of the hardback: '… an absorbing and magical read … it is the most comprehensive publication dealing with the key issues of the discipline on a comparative level … a must read for any comparatist and all enrichment and restitution enthusiasts. It succeeds brilliantly in its aims and is a very welcome new source of reference in my own library.' Edinburgh Law Review

Unjustified enrichment has been one of the most intellectually vital areas of private law. There is, however, still no unanimity among civil-law and common-law legal systems about how to structure this important branch of the law of obligations. Several key issues are considered comparatively in this 2002 book, including grounds for recovery of enrichment, defences, third-party enrichment, as well as proprietary and taxonomic questions. Two contributors deal with each topic, one a representative of a common-law system, the other a representative of a civil-law or mixed system. This approach illuminates not just similarities or differences between systems, but also what different systems can learn from one another. In an area of law whose territory is still partially uncharted and whose borders are contested, such comparative perspectives will be valuable for both academic analysis of the law and its development by the courts.

Part I: 1. Introduction David Johnston and Reinhard Zimmermann
Part II. Enrichment 'Without Legal Ground' or Unjust-Factor Approach?: 2. Unjust factors and legal grounds Sonja Meier
3. In defence of unjust factors Thomas Krebs
Part III. Failure of Consideration: 4. Failure of consideration: myth and meaning in the English law of restitution Graham Virgo
5. Failure of consideration Robin Evans-Jones and Katrin Kruse
Part IV. Duress and Fraud: 6. In defence of unjust factors: a study of rescission for duress, fraud and exploitation Mindy Chen-Wishart
7. Fraud, duress and unjustified enrichment: a civil law perspective Jacques du Plessis
Part V. Change of Position: 8. Restitution without enrichment? Change of position and Wegfall der Bereicherung James Gordley
9. Unwinding mutual contracts: Restitio in integrum v the defence of change of position Philip Hellwege
Part VI. Illegality: 10. The role of illegality in the English law of unjust enrichment Gerhard Dannemann
Part VII. Encroachment and Restitution for Wrongs: 12. Reflections on the role of restitutionary damages to protect contractual expectations Janet O'Sullivan
13. Encroachments: between private and public Hanoch Dagan
Part VIII. Improvements: 14. Mistaken improvements and the restitution calculus Andrew Kull
15. Enrichment by improvements in Scots law James Wolfe
Part IX. Discharge of Another Person's Debt: 16. Performance of another's obligation: French and English law contrasted Simon Whittaker
17. Payment of another's debt Hector L. MacQueen
Part X. Third Party Enrichment: 18. 'At the expense of the claimant': direct and indirect enrichment in English law Peter Birks
19. Searches for silver bullets: enrichment in three-party situations Daniel Visser
Part XI. Proprietary Issues: 20. Proprietary issues George Gretton
21. Property, subsidiarity, and unjust enrichment Lionel Smith
Part XII. Taxonomy: 22. Taxonomy: does it matter? Ewan McKendrick
23. Rationality, nationality and the taxonomy of unjustified enrichment Niall R. Whitty.

Subject Areas: Laws of Specific jurisdictions [LN]