Dear Colleagues:

 

Congratulations go out to ODGers Emma Turton and John Cartwright on the publication of new books with Hart.  As usual, Hart has offered a 20% discount if the instructions on the attached order forms are followed. From the book descriptions:

 

Gemma Turton, Evidential Uncertainty in Causation in Negligence

 

This book undertakes an analysis of academic and judicial responses to the problem of evidential uncertainty in causation in negligence. It seeks to bring clarity to what has become a notoriously complex area by adopting a clear approach to the function of the doctrine of causation within a corrective justice-based account of negligence liability. It first explores basic causal models and issues of proof, including the role of statistical and epidemiological evidence, in order to isolate the problem of evidential uncertainty more precisely. Application of Richard Wright's NESS test to a range of English case law shows it to be more comprehensive than the 'but for' test that currently dominates, thereby reducing the need to resort to additional tests, such as the Wardlaw test of material contribution to harm, the scope and meaning of which are uncertain. The book builds on this foundation to explore the solution to a range of problems of evidential uncertainty, focusing on the Fairchild principle and the idea of risk as damage, as well as the notion of loss of a chance in medical negligence which is often seen as analogous with 'increase in risk', in an attempt to bring coherence to this area of the law.

 

John Cartwright, Contract Law: An Introduction to the English Law of Contract for the Civil Lawyer

 

This book gives an introduction to the English law of contract. The third edition has been fully updated to cover recent developments in case law and recent statutes such as the Consumer Rights Act 2015. However, this new edition retains the primary focus of the earlier editions: it is designed to introduce the lawyer trained in a civil law jurisdiction to the method of reasoning in the common law, and in particular to the English law of contract. It is written for the lawyer — whether student or practitioner — from another jurisdiction who already has an understanding of a (different) law of contract, but who wishes to discover the way in which an English lawyer views a contract. However, it is also useful for the English law student: setting English contract law generally in the context of other European and international approaches, the book forms an introductory text, not only demonstrating how English contract law works but also giving a glimpse of different ways of thinking about some of the fundamental rules of contract law from a civil law perspective. After a general introduction to the common law system — how a common lawyer reasons and finds the law — the book explains the principles of the law of contract in English law covering all the aspects of a contract from its formation to the remedies available for breach, whilst directing attention in particular to those areas where the approach of English law is in marked contrast to that taken in many civil law systems.

 

Happy Reading,

 

Jason Neyers
Professor of Law
Faculty of Law
Western University
Law Building Rm 26
e. jneyers@uwo.ca
t. 519.661.2111 (x88435)