Sally Wheeler

The teaching of contract law has traditionally been concerned with examining and explaining the complex doctrinal rules of contract developed by statute and common law. Recently, however, law teachers have begun to see the advantages of teaching the subject from a more theoretical standpoint. The study of the theory of contract law has blossomed in the last 25 years to the point where it is now accepted that for students to be given a proper understanding of the rules of contract law, teachers of the subject must introduce them to its theoretical literature. Textbooks and casebooks have, with one or two notable exceptions, failed to recognize this change. By contrast, this new book takes as is starting point the need to mix theoretical approaches with the study of cases and statutes and thereby offers students a richer, more varied and more interesting selection of materials than can be found in any other comparable book on the subject. The materials are held together by a lucid and critical commentary provided by the authors, who have also written notes on further reading and examstyle questions to conclude each section. This book is an ideal way to introduce students to the complexities of contract law.

The search for an ethical foundation for corporate behaviour has been a powerful theme of scholarship in company law since the middle of the last century. In an era of social democracy the search has intensified, fuelled by the demise of the new right both in economic and social terms. The author of this path-breaking and provocative work argues that third way politics offers a means of identifying that foundation by emphasizing the need for social co-operation and partnership through shared agendas rather than regulatory pressure. In contrast to many contemporary "globalization" theorists the author argues that corporations are in fact profoundly concerned with national political and social agendas rather than global ones. The reasons for the demise of the new right are intimately connected with the position of corporations within civil society. Corporations have little choice but to become involved with third way politics and its accompanying social agendas. These ideas are traced through into a blueprint for corporate behaviour which looks at Aristotelian ethics as a way of creating a position for the corporation which permits the goal of profit to be placed alongside others such as community participation. These goals, it is argued, can be achieved through an ethics of care approach.

This book examines the phenomenon of reservation of title clauses in commercial contracts and looks at the impact of these clauses upon the transactions of which they form a part. With the aid of data gathered from a field survey it also examines the impact of these clauses in situations of insolvency and the strategies employed by insolvency practitioners to counteract their effect. This subject is of increasing interest and importance for legal teaching and research and the book meets the demand for an integrated, readable study of insolvency practice.