Obligations: law and language

"Obligations: Law and Language is the first work of its kind to examine in depth the fundamental language used by courts, legislators, and academic commentators when describing the nature of obligations law. A comparative perspective is taken, examining the law of England, Scotland, the United States, Canada, and Australia, and an in-depth analysis is provided of the major legal commentaries, statutes, and case law from each jurisdiction. In exploring such fundamental words as obligation, liability, debt, conditional, unilateral, mutual, and gratuitous, the author examines the often confusing and contradictory ways in which basic structural language has been used, and brings clarity to a core area of legal theory and practice"--

Cover ; Half-title page; Title page; Copyright page; Contents; Preface; Table of Cases ; Table of Public Legislation ; Introduction; A Fundamental Structural Language; B The Field of Study: Which Legal Systems and Source Material?; C The Field of Study: Which Fundamental Structural Words?; D The Search for Clarity in Meaning; E The Purposes of Deploying Fundamental Structural Language; F Fundamental Structural Language and Taxonomy; G Objections to the Search for Default or Core Meanings of Fundamental Structural Language

H The Continuing Desirability of Default or Core Meanings of Fundamental Structural Language1 Obligation and Liability; A Introduction; B Etymology and Commonly Ascribed Meanings of the Terms; (1) Obligation(s); (2) Liability( -ies) ; C Obligations, Rights, and Duties; (1) The 'Law of Obligations' and Obligations More Generally Understood; (2) Obligations and Real Obligations; D A Hohfeldian Critique; E Obligation; (1) Roman Origins of 'Obligation'; (2) Obligation in Early English Law; (3) Obligation in the Early Modern Period; (4) Nineteenth-Century Development; (5) The Modern Law

(6) Managing the Obligations/Property Divide: Real and Personal ObligationsF Lia…