Common Law in the Age of Statutes - The Equity of the Statute

David Wright's Common Law in the Age of Statutes: The Equity of the Statute cogently and convincingly argues that the Australian common law is developed by analogy to statute. Offering a principled analysis of contemporary Australian jurisprudence and legisprudence to support his position, Wright's argument is developed by the exploration of two key trends. The first is that traditional private law obligations at common law and in equity are increasingly being directly and indirectly affected by the ambit of statutory obligations. The second trend is that Australian law is in a state of unification, with the underlying drivers of such statutory, common law and equitable unification being purposive statutory interpretation and the curial revival of the doctrine of 'the equity of the statute' through analogical reasoning. This second issue is, as Wright notes, more 'contentious', but it provides the book's most substantial contribution to the literature and is developed throughout Part V. Wright's thesis therefore provides a unique layered insight into the functional interaction between common law and statute in Australian law.