Andrew R C Simpson, Scott Crichton Styles, Euan West and Adelyn L M Wilson (eds), Continuity, Change and Pragmatism in the Law: Essays in Memory of Professor Angelo Forte
| Pages | 170-172 |
| DOI | 10.3366/elr.2018.0473 |
| Published date | 01 January 2018 |
| Date | 01 January 2018 |
Professor Angelo Forte (1949–2012) was a much loved and admired member of the Scottish legal and academic community. When I think of him the first thing that comes to mind is his sense of humour and the merry twinkle in his eye, well captured in the photograph on the back cover of this excellent volume of essays in his memory.
Angelo's interests were wide. Prominent among them were commercial law (particularly contract law and insurance law) and legal history. His views were well-informed and always sensible rather than doctrinaire, with a keen eye on the realities of legal and commercial practice – hence the emphasis on pragmatism in the title and in many of the contributions. The first essay, by Andrew Simpson, develops the link between Angelo's work and the title of the volume in more detail.
The next essay is a brilliant piece by Hector MacQueen on commercial law and legal history which is just as much about argument, theory and insight as it is about pragmatism. It shows how Scottish lawyers adjusted theories to cope with the changes in commercial practice in the 18th and early 19th centuries. A major theoretical adjustment was the recognition of an all-encompassing definition of contract. This rendered a lot of old intellectual contortions unnecessary and enabled the law to cope with all sorts of new contracts without theoretical problems.
Then there is an insightful essay by John Blackie which shows how ahead of his time Angelo was in many areas, including consumer law, and how attractive his methodology was. It was also, for me, a nostalgic reminder of the hot private law issues of the 1970's and 80's, and of the stronger links which there were at that time between academic articles and writing for the legal profession.
Five essays on legal history follow, by Frederik Pedersen, Andrew Simpson, Jorn Sunde, Adelyn Wilson and Scott Styles. All are fascinating. The first covers a bizarre case of murder in England in 1375 where the deceased's brother would not have made a good Polynesian sailor (11 and 83). The second covers procedures for dealing with robbery in Scotland before 1400 and links up strangely with a later essay on a totally different topic by David Carey Miller: both deal to some extent with the problems which can arise if A claims the return of A's goods from B, and B might or might not have got them lawfully from C. The third deals with the period of transition from udal to feudal law in Shetland and shows chancers trying to take...
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