This work is an historical and comparative analysis of the emergence of English Public law as a distinct branch of law to govern the state. It explains persistent problems and considers potential reforms by contrasting the development of the innovative and influential French system of public law.

The development of an autonomous English public law has been accompanied by persistent problemsDSa lack of systematic principles, dissatisfaction with judicial procedures, and uncertainty about the judicial role. It has provoked an ongoing debate on the very desirability of the distinction between public and private law. In this debate, a historical and comparative perspective has been lacking. A Continental Distinction in the Common Law introduces such a perspective. It compares the recent emergence of a significant English distinction with the entrenchment of the traditional French distinction. It explains how persistent problems of English public law are related to fundamental differences between the English and French legal and political traditions, differences in their conception of the state administration, their approach to law, their separation of powers, and their judicial procedures in public-law cases. The author argues that a satisfactory distinction between public and private law depends on a particular legal and political context, a context which was evident in late nineteenth-century France and is absent in twentieth-century England. He concludes by identifying the far-reaching theoretical, institutional, and procedural changes required to accommodate English public law.

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

ISBN:

9780198298656

Publication date:

February 2000

Length:

216mm

Width:

139mm

Thickness:

20mm

Weight:

386g

Edition:

Rev

Pages:

300

Readership:

Professional & scholarly

The Rome Statute is not, and is not intended to be, the final word on individual liability at an international level. In drawing together the existing strands of jurisprudence in this area, this book provides an invaluable resource which should assist in a rational development of the law in the future. The thoroughness with which this project has been undertaken and the eminence of the contributors should ensure that this book will become a bible to a broad spectrum ofacademics and practitioners with an interest in this field. Law Quarterly Review ... seminal ... will without doubt become standard reading for practitioners and regular holdings at law libraries around the world. German Yearbook of International Law ... impressive ... essential for the shelves of any forward-thinking criminal practitioner. John Cooper, The Times