BOOKS: New Titles from Hart Publishing

Hart Publishing has released a number of new titles, including:

Geneviève Helleringer and Kai Purnhagen, Towards a European Legal Culture

European harmonisation efforts such as a European civil code, European constitutional treaties, European principles, and European fundamental rights are frequently criticised for building on or creating a European legal culture that does not exist; in reality what we have is European legal pluralism. Some have argued that the pluralistic structure of European law hinders the development of a community, which is a necessary requirement for a European legal culture. And if there can be no common European legal culture then there is no basis for harmonising exercises.

The contributors to this book explore in different legal areas whether in fact the contrary is true. Cultural pluralism might indeed be a distinctive feature of European legal culture. Diversity is not something that is in opposition to, but rather constitutes a new, different understanding of European legal culture. The contributions demonstrate in detail how such an approach inter alia in the areas of private, corporate, administrative and constitutional law furthers understanding of a developing European legal culture, how it offers theoretical and doctrinal insights, and how it adds critical perspective.

Yuanshi Bu, Chinese Civil Law: A Handbook

China is a major civil law jurisdiction. Since the end of the 1990s great efforts have been made in China to codify the entire civil law. With the major statutes governing contracts, property, torts and conflict of laws promulgated in 1999, 2007, 2009 and 2010 respectively, the most crucial steps have been taken towards the creation of a Chinese Civil code.

This book attempts to shed light on both the theoretical and the practical aspects of Chinese civil law, while extensive footnotes and a detailed bibliography and index allow for further study of specific areas and facilitate systematic research.