Article by Hein Kötz
In the author's view the experience of the mixed legal systems may make a significant contribution to the great project of developing a European common law, and perhaps even of a European civil code. This experience may show, for example, that the use in a statute of broad statements of principle (such as a good faith clause) does not, as many English lawyers seem to believe, sound the death-knell of established techniques of developing the law by way of an orderly process of reasoning from case to case. This experience may also show that a more rational style of legislative drafting than the one prevailing in England under the influence of the Parliamentary Draftsmen is perfectly compatible with the common law tradition.
About the Author
Hein Kötz. Dean and Professor of Law, Bucerius Law School, Hamburg.
Citation
78 Tul. L. Rev. 435 (2003)