Recent Developments on the Monetary Front and Their Impact on Monetary Law

Abstract

Dr. Hirschberg's two books, The Nominalistic Principle (1971) and The Inpact of .Inflation and Devaluation on Private Legal Obligations (1976) are concerned with a modem legal problem to which far too little attention has been paid. The author points out in this introductory article .that, traditionally, our law has adopted a nominalistic approach in the sense that it has measured obligations, damages, even jurisdiction in monetary terms on the assumption that the nominal value of money will continue to correspond to its purchasing power. Devaluation, monetary instability and inflation have shown this assumption to be incorrect. Especially in relation to long-term obligations, strict nominalism in an age of inflation is an __ anachronism. ■ . The existing law contains some partial solutions,-€o' this problem, but what is necessary is that lawyers should understand the nature and extent of the problem and work out phe extent to which a valoristic approach, based on the value of purchasing power of money, ought to replace the traditional nominalistic approach. ■