Book Review: Cases Illustrating General Principles of the Law of Contract

Abstract

This is a small casebook containing 79 English cases on the law of Contracts, Agency, and Quasi-Contracts. It is intended to accompany Anson's treatise; and its purpose, indicated in its title, is to illustrate the application of the rules constructed by Anson. For such a limited purpose it will no doubt be very serviceable. At least a third of the cases are contained in several American casebooks on the subject. With only eight cases in Offer and Acceptance, three on Statute of Frauds, seven on Consideration, three on Quasi-Contracts, and next to none on Conditions, it is certain that much is left without illustration and that the student is not afforded material sufficient for original and critical comparative study. It seems certain that, just as in this country, the later English casebooks will treat the law not as settled once for all by the masters and the judges but as growing and changing with new life conditions, and will give to the student an opportunity to do far more than to read Anson and then prove he is right by means of a single case.