Private International Law and the Retrospective Operation of Statutes: A Treatise on the Conflict of Laws and the Limits of Their Operation in Respect of Place and Time

Savigny, Friedrich Carl von. Private International Law, and the Retrospective Operation of Statutes: A Treatise On the Conflict of Laws, and the Limits of Their Operation in Respect to Place and Time. Translated, With Notes, by William Guthrie. With an Appendix Containing the Treatises of Bartolus, Molinaeus, Paul Voet, and Huber. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, Law Publishers, 1880. xii, 567 pp. Reprinted 2003 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 2003052774. ISBN-13: 978-1-58477-367-2. ISBN-10: 1-58477-367-7. Cloth. $150. * Reprint of the second revised edition. Savigny [1779-1861] was an important German jurist and an excellent scholar of Roman law. A principal member of the historical school of jurisprudence, he had a keen interest in its role in the subsequent development of European law. Private International Law is a volume drawn from his System of Modern Roman Law (1840-1849), an eight-volume study of contemporary legal systems based on Roman law. As the translator observes, this volume is valuable because it "deals with a subject of great practical importance, as to which the opinions of foreign jurists have always been respected in the British courts. And not only has the eighth volume itself been cited as an authority in our tribunals, but English writers have borrowed and enforced its doctrines with more or less exactness of reproduction" (Introduction, 9). Beyond its lucid exposition of a complex subject, this book offers a wonderful introduction to Savigny's monumental study. With! an appendix containing a biography of Savigny and an index of English and Scottish cases.