Brian Simpson’s Leading Cases in the Common Law fits the bill very nicely. The book in general is brilliant in putting cases in their historical and social context well beyond the case reports - chapters on Raffles v Wichelhaus, Tipping v St Helens Smelting, Rylands v Fletcher and Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball all stand out from a private law perspective, with an intro chapter on the Study of Cases.

If I had to choose one the Rylands chapter would win it for me - the reference to the dam (a) still being there, and (b) it still leaking, surely invites a site visit and a photograph from someone on this list!

Best,

Rick



Dear Colleagues 

Every year I run an honours course “Reading Legal Classics” where we read and discuss influential articles on “law”. It is a kind of a book club of sorts ( only with law review articles, or book chapters) , and is one of my favourite things about my job.  The only flaw is that students want to discuss “public law” articles.  So this year I have made the course expressly “private law theory”, although in doing that I didn’t mean to exclude private law doctrinal articles.  I was wondering if any of you might be able to suggest readings that we might include on the list - the articles don’t have to be incredibly famous ones, but I guess my main criteria for inclusion is an article that shapes the way the reader thinks not just about the particular subject but also about how to think about doing law. Any suggestions from the list would be very welcome.  In return I’ll post what the course list looked like in a couple of months, or if you are going to be in Banff I might be able to thank you  in person.

Best wishes to everyone 

ngā mihi nui

Geoff (he/him)

Professor Geoff McLay
Faculty of Law
Victoria University of Wellington

Editor of the New Zealand Law Reports


+64 4 4636320

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