'An Homage to German Law'. English legal historians sometimes claim that English law has developed 'in splendid isolation' from the rest of Europe. Modern English contract lawyers often fail to stress the historical links that English law developed in the 19th century with Roman, French and, especially, German law. Among contemporary lawyers, academic and practising, there exists a wide spread misinformation about contemporary European law - private as well as public. This brief essay attempts to redress the balance by arguing that English contract law owes a great intellectual debt to German thought. In its second part, which the author hopes to expand one day into an independent piece, the question is asked why are some modern English scholars, unlike their nineteenth century counterparts, so determined to underplay these links? Is it because they believe that German law no longer has anything to offer to the English? Or is it because the English, in their current state of weakened self-confidence, are reluctant to concede to their economic 'competitors' even the slightest point of scholarly superiority? Whatever the reasons, in the author's view, understanding the many fruitful links that once existed between the two systems can only help the process of greater co-operation and, even legal harmonisation in Europe which he has always favoured.
European Review of Private Law