Form and Function in a Legal System

Robert S. Summers is the William G. McRoberts Research Professor in the Administration of Law at Cornell Law School. He has won international acclaim for his work in contracts and commercial law and authored and coauthored multiple works on contracts, commercial law, jurisprudence and legal theory. His treatise on the Uniform Commercial Code, coauthored with James White, is the most widely cited on the subject. Professor Summers has served as official advisor both to the Drafting Commission for Russian Civil Code and to the Drafting Commission for Egyptian Civil Code. He lectures annually on jurisprudence and legal theory in Britain, Scandinavia, and Europe.

Review of the hardback: 'The authors rich and multi-layered pictures of various first-level legal phenomena will be of immense important to all theorists working within those specific fields. For policy-makers alone this book is a must.' The Cambridge Law Journal

• Part I. Introduction, Basic Concepts, Definitions, and General Approach: 1. Introduction; 2. Basic concepts and definitions; 3. General approach; Part II. The Forms of Discrete Legal Phenomena: 4. Forms of institutions - legislative; 5. Forms of precepts - rules; 6. Form and content within a rule - continued; 7. Forms of nonpreceptual law - contracts and related property interests; 8. Forms of legal methodologies - statutory interpretation; 9. Forms of sanctions and remedies; Part III. The Form of a Legal System and its Operation: 10. The basic form of a legal system as a whole; 11. Cumulative and synergistic effects of legal forms - a schematic practical application.