Oxford professor of law (1941-2004)
Loyalty cannot be too liberally insisted upon. Altruism in nature remains an exception. It poses a puzzle, being in prima facie conflict with the survival of the fittest and most selfish.
PETER BIRKS
Privacy and Loyalty
When lawyers are muddled ordinary people win and lose disputes for no good reason. More accurately, my mistake. In short because of intellectual pigheadedness injustice is done. And that is disgraceful.
PETER BIRKS
The Roman Law of Obligations
An obligation is a rope ... by which we are tied. Dwell on that image. Here am I with a rope around my neck. We must allow for the other end of the rope. You are holding that. I am under an obligation to you: the picture is of this rope between us, and you in control; the rope is round my neck but in your hand.
PETER BIRKS
The Roman Law of Obligations
What law is, what the relationship is between law and morality, are matters of incessant jurisprudential debate. But it is not disastrously misleading to say that law is the normative system applied in the courts.
PETER BIRKS
The Roman Law of Obligations
An expectant heir is easily exploited in a catching bargain. He suffers in an extreme degree from the same vulnerability to which all men are exposed when they seek credit. That is, they are too willing to sacrifice long-term prospects to short-term advantage.
PETER BIRKS
An Introduction to the Law of Restitution
Well thought out law is elegant, economical, easy to learn.
PETER BIRKS
The Roman Law of Obligations
All rights which can be realized in court arise from some event which happens in the world.
PETER BIRKS
Unjust Enrichment