There seems lately to have been a marked revival of interest in German law among academics in the United Kingdom. Several universities now run courses on the subject, most of them using as their textbooks the excellent works by Horn, Kotz and Leser (German Private and Commercial Law: An Introduction, 1982) and by Zweigert and Kötz (An Introduction to Comparative Law, 2 Vols., 2nd edn., 1987). Both of these were brilliantly translated by Tony Weir. This new book, by the recently appointed Professor of Comparative Law at London’s Queen Mary College, is a worthy companion volume. It is intended as the first of a trio by the same author, the others covering the German law of contract and the French law of tort and contract. If the same very high standard of scholarship is maintained throughout, his three volumes look set to become invaluable aids for all common law lawyers.

The book presents the German law of tort from a comparatist’s viewpoint. It begins with introductory sections on the German civil court system (though the diagram in Horn, Kötz and Leser is clearer) and the sources of German tort law. There follows, until well into the second half of the book, a description of liability under para. 823–I of the Civil Code. This is the provision which encapsulates in just two or three lines a huge body of doctrine: “A person who wilfully or negligently injures the life, body, health, freedom, property or other right of another contrary to law is bound to compensate him for any damage arising therefrom.” There are 53 pages of commentary on this, together with 272 pages of translated cases (49 in all) and a few pages of notes on each of the categories of case. The next part of the book examines stricter forms of liability and is constructed along similar lines (30 cases being included). A final section of about 100 pages is devoted to other provisions of the German Civil Code that have a relevance for tort law.