This book starts by surveying the use or neglect of good faith in European contract law and traces its historical origins. Its central part takes thirty hypothetical situations that have attracted the application of good faith and analyzes them according to fifteen national legal systems. It concludes by explaining how European lawyers, whether from a civil or common law background, need to come to terms with the principle of good faith.

How far can tort liability expand without imposing excessive burdens upon individual activity? This comprehensive study of the subject uses a fact-based comparative method and in-depth research into the laws of thirteen European countries. Many events result in pure economic loss, such as a business being idled by the cut of electricity cables. This controversial issue raises questions which affect the law of tort and contract.

Professor James Gordley opens this volume with a concise history of the legal status of promises. In the central part of the book legal experts examine how twelve modern European legal systems deal with fifteen concrete situations in which a promise may not be enforceable--situations that include gifts, loans, bailments, houses, rewards, and brokerage contracts. Despite differences in legal doctrine, the volume reveals similarities in the results. This is the second completed project of The Common Core of European Private Law launched at the University of Trento.

How far can tort liability expand without imposing excessive burdens upon individual activity? This comprehensive study of the subject uses a fact-based comparative method and in-depth research into the laws of thirteen European countries. Many events result in pure economic loss, such as a business being idled by the cut of electricity cables. This controversial issue raises questions which affect the law of tort and contract.

The book delves into the 'deeper structures' of the world's legal systems, where law meets culture, politics and socio-economic factors.