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The Conflict Of Laws: A Comparative Study, Second Edition. Volume Three. Special Obligations: Modification And Discharge Of Obligations, Ernst Rabel

Michigan Legal Studies Series

The third volume of Ernst Rabel's comparative treatise on the conflict of laws was originally published in 1950. With the continued support ofThe University of Michigan Law School and the cooperation of the Max-Planck-Institut für auslaändisches und internationals Privatrecht in Hamburg, this second edition of Volume III has been prepared. Plans for the revision of Volumes I and II were made before the death of the author on September 7, 1955, and the work was carried to completion by Dr. Ulrich Drobnig of the staff of the Institut in Hamburg. We were fortunate in obtaining the services of another well-qualified …

The Conflict Of Laws: A Comparative Study. Volume Three. Special Obligations: Modification And Discharge Of Obligations, Ernst Rabel

Michigan Legal Studies Series

Among the multitude of conflicts principles that, according to various claims, should determine the law applicable to all contracts, only two have resisted the test of critical analysis. These, indeed, form an adequate groundwork. First, the freedom of parties to choose the law applicable to their contract must be recognized as a general rule without petty restraint. Second, in the absence of such agreement, a contract should be governed by the law most closely connected with its characteristic feature.

The first proposition is essential to the second. To deny party autonomy means rigid conflicts rules created by some superior authority. …

The Conflict Of Laws: A Comparative Study. Volume Two. Foreign Corporations: Torts: Contracts In General, Ernst Rabel

Michigan Legal Studies Series

Full application of comparative methods to the law of conflicts requires a working plan of some magnitude. We ought to take stock of the conflicts rules existing in the different countries of the world, state their similarities or dissimilarities, and investigate their purposes and effects. The solutions thus ascertained should moreover be subjected to an estimation of their usefulness, by the standards appropriate to their natural objective. Conflicts rules have to place private life and business relations upon the legal background suitable to satisfactory intercourse among states and nations. They are valuable to the extent that their practical functioning, rather …