Specific Performance in German, French and Dutch Law in the Nineteenth Century : Remedies in an Age of Fundamental Rights and Industrialisation

The current French, German and Dutch Law of Contract each offer a remedy of specific performance to creditors suffering from breach of contract. This book analyses the alterations to this remedy during the nineteenth century on the substantive, procedural and enforcement levels. Fascinatingly, there is a link between changes to the remedy and the development of early human rights and the mass industrialisation of society. The latter had the effect of actually converging the national remedies of specific performance in the examined systems: damages and rescission became more accessible as remedies at the cost of specific performance. The book demonstrates the interdependency between law and society and provides vital background information to the harmonisation of a controversial concept in the European Law of Obligations. Studies in the History of Private Law, vol. 2 Dedication Contents Foreword Abbreviations 1. Introduction 1.1. The Subject of this Study 1.2. Methodology 1.3. Structure 2. Specific Performance before the Nineteenth Century 2.1. Introduction 2.2. Roman Law 2.3. Glossators, Commentators and Canonists 2.4. Customary Law, Early Modern Scholasticism and Legal Humanism 2.5. Roman-Dutch Law and Roman-Frisian Law 2.6. Early Modern Natural Law and the usus modernus pandectarum 2.7. Specific Performance versus nemo praecise 3. Specific Performance as Primary Remedy 3.1. Introduction 3.2. German ius commune 3.3. Prussia and the Allgemeines Landrecht (1794) 3.4. France and the Code civil (1804) 3.5. The Rhine Province, Baden and the Code civil 3.6. The Netherlands, Roman-Dutch Law and the Code civil 3.7. Comparison 4. Damages as Rule 4.1. Introduction 4.2. German Confederation (1815–1866) 4.3. German Empire (1871–1918) 4.4. France and Belgium 4.5. The Netherlands 4.6. Comparison 5. Specific Performance as an Exceptional Remedy 5.1. Introduction 5.2. France and Belgium 5.3. The Netherlands 5.4. German Empire 5.5. Comparison 6. Summary and Conclusions Bibliography Index of Names Index of Sources Index of Cases This book illustrates the influence of early human rights and mass industrialisation on the right to (physically) enforce performance of obligations in France, the German territories and the Netherlands during the nineteenth century. It provides background information to the harmonisation of a controversial concept in European Private Law.