Jacques du Plessis, THE SOUTH AFRICAN LAW OF UNJUSTIFIED ENRICHMENT Claremont: Juta (www.jutalaw.co.za), 2012. xliv + 436 pp. ISBN 9780702194740. R550.
| Pages | 102-104 |
| Author | Daniel J Carr |
| Date | 01 January 2013 |
| Published date | 01 January 2013 |
| DOI | 10.3366/elr.2013.0143 |
It sometimes feels like the recognition of a South African general enrichment action has been imminent for years. In fairness, the indications have been that such a judicial recognition was, indeed, imminent. Law, however, has a stubborn tendency not to respect predictions: there is still no judicially sanctioned “general enrichment action” in South Africa. Yet, at least, as du Plessis explains, the judiciary have accepted the
Scottish lawyers have much to gain from works like these, and not only because of a juridical camaraderie flowing from being “mixed” legal systems at a general level. Affinities between the two systems’ enrichment laws, and theorists, run deep. This text is a welcome adornment to that comity. Furthermore, the relatively recent revamp of Scottish unjust(ified) enrichment law, that culminated in Lord Rodger's decision in
Du Plessis's early discussion of the taxonomical implications of a general action, and the different choices of perspective that the recognition of such an action would offer, is remarkable for its clarity, and it frames the entire text admirably. Three conceptualisations are available to frame the general action as it has developed so far. These contrast with the “traditional approach”, which now seems passé, whereby the existence of a general action is dismissed out of hand. The first option is to consider the general enrichment action to be subsidiary and residual. A similar view might be taken of the use of the...
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