THE UNAUTHORISED AGENT: PERSPECTIVES FROM EUROPEAN AND COMPARATIVE LAW. Ed by Danny Busch and Laura J Macgregor Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (www.cambridge.org), 2009. xxxiv + 480 pp. ISBN 97805212863889. £70.
| Published date | 01 January 2011 |
| DOI | 10.3366/elr.2011.0010 |
| Pages | 148-149 |
| Date | 01 January 2011 |
The law of agency, Busch and Macgregor correctly point out, is a “much under-researched area” (1). Full-blown comparative studies in the law of agency, it could be added, are truly
From a comparatist's angle, however, two notes of caution need to be sounded. First, the chosen subject matter of the book creates an oddly harmonious picture. As anyone who has taught, or written about, Common Law and Civil Law forms of agency comparatively will know, the great rift valley that renders meaningful comparison in this commercial discipline so treacherous is the distinction continental systems draw between direct and indirect agency. Such a distinction may mean little to many common lawyers. By focussing on the agent who has acted without authority, this cardinal distinction is adeptly bypassed. At the outset, the editors acknowledge as much, calling direct agency in Common Law, Civil Law and mixed systems “the obvious area for comparison” (7). Suffice to say, had they extended their area of inquiry, this study would probably have been deprived of this uncharacteristic euphony. Secondly, from the first sentence we are told that this work was conceived “in a café in the beautiful surroundings of Trento” (xi). Trento, of course, is the clue. The editors subscribe to the “common core” approach to European law, variously designating this “the heart of the matter” (386) and “the principal aim...
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