Book Review by Neil H. Andrews
Professor Palmer's book is a modified version of a doctoral thesis that he submitted at Oxford. In the preface, he says that his mentors were Barry Nicholas and Brian Simpson, and that his examiners were Patrick Atiyah and John Baker. It is fitting that such an illustrious quartet of scholars should have been variously associated with this ambitious project. This is a study of the great tangle of common law and equitable decisions that culminated in Viscount Haldane's famous summary in Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co. v. Selfridge & Co.:
My Lords, in the law of England certain principles are fundamental. One is that only a person who is a party to a contract can sue on it. Our law knows nothing of a jus quaesitum tertio arising by way of contract. Such a right may be conferred by way of property, as, for example, under a trust, but it cannot be conferred on a stranger to a contract as a right to enforce the contract in personam. A second principle is that if a person with whom a contract not under seal has been made is to be able to enforce it consideration must have been given by him to the promisor or to some other person at the promisor's request.
About the Author
Neil H. Andrews. University Lecturer, Cambridge, England, B.A. (Oxon.) 1980, B.C.L. (Oxon.) 1992, Barrister.
Citation
69 Tul. L. Rev. 1393 (1995)