Law Commons^™

Aspects Of Reception Of Law, Alan Watson

Scholarly Works

In most places at most times borrowing is the most fruitful source of legal change. The borrowing may be from within the system, by analogy - from negligence in torts to negligence in contract, for instance - or from another legal system. The act of borrowing is usually simple. To build up a theory of borrowing on the other hand, seems to be an extremely complex matter. Receptions come in all shapes and sizes: from taking over single rules to (theoretically) almost a whole system. They present an array of social phenomena that are not easily explained: from whom can …