Posted: January 29th, 2016

critically analyse whether the UK should codify commercial law with particular reference to whether commercial law would suffer from ‘excessive rigidity’ and an inability to adapt if it were to do so.

“Civilian systems are characterized by wide-ranging codification of legal rules, whereas common law systems are distinguished by​ their reliance on incremental change through the accumulation of judicial precedent. It may be that this ability to shape the law on a case-by-case basis helps to render legal regulation more adaptable to changed circumstances. In contrast, civilian legal systems may suffer from excessive rigidity, as change may only be made infrequently through legislation.”

J Armour et al ‘How do legal rules evolve? Evidence from a cross-country comparison of shareholder, creditor and worker protection’ (2009) 57(3) American Journal of Comparative Law 579

With reference to the above quote critically analyse whether the UK should codify commercial law with particular reference to whether commercial law would suffer from ‘excessive rigidity’ and an inability to adapt if it were to do so.