This is an important book which explores the classification of obligations. This is a very topical subject since the professions only started requiring Obligations in the compulsory core as recently as October 1995. It is fitting that it is examined here by contributors who are among the best-known writers in this field. The contributions include A New 'Seascape' for Obligations: Reclassification on the Basis of Measure of Damages by Jane Stapleton; Basic Obligations by James Penner; and an essay by Peter Birks himself entitled, Definition and Division: A Meditation on Institutes. These essays combine practical and academic perspectives which usefully highlight contemporary trends in the law of obligations. The book will be a valuable addition to the libraries of all teachers involved in this area of law.

Editor's Preface Table of Cases One: Definition and Division: A Meditation on Institutes, Peter Birks Two: The Juridical Classification of Obligations, Ernest Weinrib Three: Legal Classification as the Production of Knowledge Systems, Hugh Collins Four: The Classification of Obligations and Legal Education, Nicholas McBride Five: Basic Obligations, James Penner Six: More than a Trace of the Old Philosophy, Jeffrey Hackney Seven: Patterns of Fusion, Joshua Getzler Eight: A New `Seascape' for Obligations: Reclassification on the Basis of Measure of Damages, Jane Stapleton Nine: Is there a Future for International Torts?, David Howarth Ten: Private Law, Economic Rationality and the Regulatory State, Simon Deakin

`Birks is to be commended on the even-handedness of his editorship on treatments of a matter about which he feels so strongly ... Who can read Birks and not feel the power of his passionate criticisms of what often now passes for legal education?' David Campbell, Journal of Law and Society |d 09/11/1999