In this volume, Franz Wieacker tells how legal thinking, writing and teaching started in Europe and how it developed. One of the great strengths of the book lies in its demonstration of the constant interaction between the thinking of lawyers and the general philosophical ideas of their time.

Tony Weir is a brilliant translator of legal German, and here he has surpassed himself. For this we should be all the more grateful, because Franz Wieacker was one of the great German scholars of the postwar world. His range and depth of learning are unsurpassed..This, in my opinion, is the best general book on European legal history in any language. I say "general" because of the breadth of the enterprise, but it is nonetheless detailed, original, and insightful...it is a book that all legal historians will need to keep close at hand for constant reference...We owe a great debt to Weir for making this work accessible to an English-reading public.

`Tony Weir is a brilliant translator of legal German, and here he has surpassed himself. For this we should be all the more grateful, because Franz Wieacker was one of the great German scholars of the postwar world. His range and depth of learning are unsurpassed..This, in my opinion, is the best general book on European legal history in any language. I say "general" because of the breadth of the enterprise, but it is nonetheless detailed, original, and insightful...it is a book that all legal historians will need to keep close at hand for constant reference...We owe a great debt to Weir for making this work accessible to an English-reading public.' Modern Europe `Oxford University Press and Tony Weir, the translator of the present edition, deserve to be applauded for providing this translation...Tony Weir's translation reads like a work that was originally written in English, so convincing is it...as one might expect from a work bearing the Clarendon Press imprint, the editing is of high quality and accuracy. There is a useful general index and separate index of persons. In these days of European Union, no legal historian or European private lawyer can afford to be without a copy of this book.' Legal History August 1997 `Wieacker's Privatrechtsgeschichte der Neuzeit has long been a classic, and its appearance in English is a major event. Every serious law library outside German-speaking Europe will purchase a copy...The legal world was already deeply indebted to Weir: this book much increases those obligations, in rendering accessible Wieacker's masterpiece. It is to be hoped that more treasures of German scholarship will also one day be translated by Weir himself or others inspired by him.' International and Comparative Law Quarterly