Introduction 1
1.LAW 3
Studying Law 5
The Practical Effects of Some Recent Theoretical Developments in the Law of Contract 10
The Crisis of Contract 15
The Ratification of United Nations Covenants on Human Rights 27
Disarmament Now 35
Modern Society and Primitive Law 40
Clashes of Legal Cultures: Some Problems of Imposed Legal Systems 56
Poisoned by Pollution: an Account of Some Japanese Experiences 66
The Diplock Report on Mercenaries 79
Customary Law and Statute Law in the Pacific 84
The Reception of the Common Law and Equity in Papua New Guinea: the Problem of the Cut-off Date 93
Custom, Common Law and Constructive Judicial Lawmaking 102
Hypernationalism and Micronations: the Common Law,its Growth and Spread from Island to Islands 126
Is there a Common Law of the Commonwealth? 135
Financial Instruments 144
2.LANGUAGE 155
Law and Language: the Ethics of Ignorance 157
China and the Year Books, or a Large Number of Digressions on a Long Period in a Short Time 171
Language, Law and Truth 178
Law in a Foreign Language: the Hong Kong Experience 196
Reducing Mutual Misunderstanding: Problems and Possibilities of Translation 205
The Corporeity of a Cobweb: French in England Before AD 1204 215
Left Heel French: French in England Between 1204 and 1362 233
3.HISTORY 247
The Past is Another Country: Legal History as Comparative Law 249
Insights into Equity 262
Customary Law before the Conquest 273
Courts, Judges and Arbitrators in the Common Law 293
The Myth of Judicial Jealousy 300
Gerald Malynes, Arbitrator 312
Financing Foreign Trade: the Historical Background 318
The Influence of Traditional Morality on the Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in China 326
Captain Charles Elliot RN, Arbitrator: Dispute Resolution in China Waters 1834-1836 348
‘Something so Unenglish’: Mediation and Arbitration in Hong Kong 1841-1865 378
The Myth of Modern Mediation 394
It’s Fun and it Matters: the Uses of Arbitration History 407
Insights from History: Relevant Now? 414
4.AFTERWORDS 429
Theory in Legal Theory 431
The Relation of Theory to Practice 434
Postscript 438
Chronological List of Publications 441
Bibliography 446
Index 465