Includes bibliographical references (p. [591]-610) and index.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Specific Performance before the Nineteenth Century -- Specific Performance as Primary Remedy -- Damages as Rule -- Specific Performance as an Exceptional Remedy -- Summary and Conclusions -- Bibliography -- Index of Names -- Index of Sources -- Index of Cases.

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The current French, German and Dutch Law of Contract each offer a remedy of specific performance to creditors suffering from breach of contract. This book analyses the alterations to this remedy during the nineteenth century on the substantive, procedural and enforcement levels. Fascinatingly, there is a link between changes to the remedy and the development of early human rights and the mass industrialisation of society. The latter had the effect of actually converging the national remedies of specific performance in the examined systems: damages and rescission became more accessible as remedies at the cost of specific performance. The book demonstrates the interdependency between law and society and provides vital background information to the harmonisation of a controversial concept in the European Law of Obligations.    Studies in the History of Private Law , volume 2