Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 11:31:24 +1100

From: Andrew Robertson

Subject: The Scope of Private Law

Another very useful source on the scope of private law is Birks (ed), English Private Law, which treats:

1. Persons (family and companies);

2. Property (including security, intellectual property and succession);

3. Obligations (contract, agency, sales, the carriage of goods by sea, employment, bailment, tort and unjust enrichment); and

4. Litigation (insolvency, private international law, judicial remedies and civil procedure).

Statutes of course dominate many of those topics. If one was to produce a similar work on Australian Private Law, the section on 'Obligations' would need to include at least one statutory obligation: the obligation not to cause harm by misleading or deceptive conduct in trade or commerce. The statutory cause of action with respect to misleading or deceptive conduct has created some difficulties for those of us teaching private law in Australia. It cannot adequately be accommodated within the traditional framework of LLB subjects, but from a practical point of view is one of the most important sources of private law rights - it is wide ranging in its application and is very heavily litigated.

Andrew

-----Original Message-----
From: Jason Neyers
Sent: Tuesday, 12 December 2006 6:05 AM
Subject: ODG: The Scope of Private Law

Dear Colleagues:

I would be interested in your views about the scope of private law.

Would you for example include the law of evidence, civil procedure or conflicts of law as part of the private law? Would you include statutes, such as the Negligence Act or the UK Privity legislation as part of the private law? If not, then why not. Is there some authoritative definition of the concept that you like to employ?

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