Preface 7
Acknowledgements 11
1 Is Law a Parasite? An Evolutionary Explanation of Differences among Legal Traditions 13
1.1 Introduction 13
1.2 Legal Traditions and Their Differences 14
1.3 Legal Traditions and Evolution: Law as a Parasite 16
1.3.1 A Memetic Theory of Language Evolution: Language as a Parasite 17
1.3.2 Is Law a Parasite? 18
1.4 Can We Prove This Memetic Theory of Legal Evolution? 22
2 Darwin at Work: How to Explain Legal Change in Transnational and European Private Law? 25
2.1 Introduction 25
2.2 The Theoretical Model: A Darwinian Evolutionary Framework 26
2.3 Understanding Legal Change: Law as an Organism 27
2.4 Evolutionary Lessons for Transnational and European Private Law 29
2.4.1 The Importance of ‘Nature’: Path Dependence and Legal Change 30
2.4.2 How Law Develops: A Race to the Bottom? 34
2.4.3 Extinction or Living Together? 36
2.5 Conclusions 37
3 Do Small Jurisdictions Have a More Complex Law? A Numerical Experiment in Constitutional and Private Law 39
3.1 Introduction 39
3.2 Formalizing Complexity: How to Measure Complexity in Law? 41
3.3 The Experiment: Coding the Density of a Legal System 44
3.4 Explanation: Why Are Some Jurisdictions More Complex than Others? 48
3.5 Conclusions 53
4 If You Shoot My Dog, I’ma Kill Yo’ Cat: An Enquiry into the Principles of Hip-Hop Law 55
4.1 Introduction 55
4.2 Methodology 57
4.3 Principles of Hip-Hop Law 59
4.3.1 Introduction 59
4.3.2 Punishment: An Eye for an Eye 60
4.3.3 Self-Justice and Self-Government 62
4.3.4 Respect: No Dissing 64
4.3.5 Instrumental Use of the Law 66
4.4 Conclusions: A Law to Survive in the Urban Jungle? 67
5 The Phylogeny of the Unpaid Seller’s Right to Vindicate Goods: A Test Study 69
5.1 Introduction 69
5.2 The Price Payment Rule: A Comparative-Historical Overview 71
5.3 Phylogenetic Analysis: Dataset and Methodology 74
5.3.1 Introduction 74
5.3.2 The Dataset 75
5.3.3 Coding of the Characteristics 77
5.3.4 Phylogenetic Methods Used 78
5.4 Results of the Analysis 79
5.5 Conclusions 86
Annex 1 Full list of texts 87
Annex 2 List of traits 105
Index of Names and Places 107
