Record Nr.

UNINA9910460022803321

Autore

Bederman David J.

Titolo

Custom as a source of law / / David J. Bederman [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa


Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2010

ISBN


0-511-85077-8
1-107-21222-7
1-282-77157-4
9786612771576
0-511-78197-0
0-511-90164-X
0-511-79928-4
0-511-90243-3
0-511-79788-5
0-511-90085-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xiv, 266 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

340.5

Soggetti

Customary law

Law

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Anthropology : custom in preliterate societies -- Culture : the western legal tradition of positivism -- History : the common law and custom -- Economics, sociobiology, and psychology : the human impulse of custom -- Family law -- Property -- Contracts -- Torts -- Constitutional law -- Private international law : international commercial usage -- Public international law : custom among nations -- Conclusion : how and why custom endures.

Sommario/riassunto

A central puzzle in jurisprudence has been the role of custom in law. Custom is simply the practices and usages of distinctive communities. But are such customs legally binding? Can custom be law, even before it is recognized by authoritative legislation or precedent? And, assuming that custom is a source of law, what are its constituent elements? Is proof of a consistent and long-standing practice

sufficient, or must there be an extra ingredient - that the usage is pursued out of a sense of legal obligation, or, at least, that the custom is reasonable and efficacious? And, most tantalizing of all, is custom a source of law that we should embrace in modern, sophisticated legal systems, or is the notion of law from below outdated, or even dangerous, today? This volume answers these questions through a rigorous multidisciplinary, historical, and comparative approach, offering a fresh perspective on custom's enduring place in both domestic and international law.