This six-volume set contains the results of the first stage of an AHRC-funded project which aims to examine the nature of legal development in Western Europe since 1850, focusing on liability for fault. By bringing together experts with different disciplinary backgrounds - comparative lawyers and legal historians, all with an understanding of modern tort law in their own systems - and getting them to work collaboratively, the books produce a more nuanced comparative legal history, and one which is theoretically better informed. Also available, the three-volume set containing the results of the second and final stage of this project, published in October 2012.