French law displays many characteristics that set it apart in a world class ofits own. It can be said to proceed from a number of independent streams thatcoexist despite apparent contradiction. More than half of the 2283 articles ofthe famous Code Civile of 1804 remain unaltered; yet French administrativejudges jealously guard their prerogative to create their own public law. Andyet again, since the 1974 law empowering the legislature to convene theConstitutional Council that judges the constitutionality of laws under the1958 Constitution, the courts' distinction between 'rules' and 'fundamentalprinciples' has grown steadily-a process that has been greatly acceleratedsince the 2003 law authorizing the government to 'simplify the law.'Introduction to French Law is a very practical book that makes clear sense outof the complex results of the complex bodies of law that govern the mostimportant fields of law and legal practice in France today. Seventeenchapters, each written by a distinguished French legal scholar, cover thefollowing field in substantive and procedural detail, with lucid explanationsof French law in the following fields:; Constitutional Law; European Union Law; Administrative Law; Criminal Law; Property Law; Intellectual Property Law; Contract Law; Tort Liability; Family Law; Inheritance Law; Civil Procedure; Company Law; Competition Law; Labour Law; Tax Law; Private International LawA book that is both a useful guide for practitioners and a comprehensivesurvey of French law (with no sacrifice of rationale or theory), Introductionto French Law has no peers. It is sure to spend more time in briefcases or ondesks than on the shelf.