Author R. H. Christie QC MA LLB (Cantab) – Professor and Leverhulme Research Fellow
University of Zimbabwe ISBN 1 77906 005 X This edition printed and distributed in Zimbabwe by Juta Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd P.O. Box 124 Eiffel Flats Tel: 168-3398 Fax: 168-2644 / 168-2644 First Published 1985 Reprinted 1995 Publisher Juta & Co Ltd 1985 Printed by Mazongororo Paper Converters (Pvt) Ltd, Harare Category Business Language English
Preface This book is a successor to my Rhodesian Commercial Law which was published in 1961. Since 1961 the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland has broken up, Rhodesia has become Zimbabwe and the law has undergone many changes. In the result very little of the earlier work remains.
Over the years the law of Zimbabwe has diverged significantly from the law of South Africa on which it was founded. I have tried to mark this divergence by referring to all relevant Zimbabwean cases and statutes and by including them in the body of the text while relegating the South African, English and other authorities to the footnotes (with a few exceptions where leading cases have given their names to rules of law). This method of treatment is intended to show at a glance how much of the law is peculiar to Zimbabwe and how much is common to Zimbabwe, South Africa and England.
I wish to record my thanks to the Leverhulme trustees for their generous financial support which has made the work possible, and to Mr Douglas Old of Syfrets Merchant Bank for valuable assistance with chapter 8.
The law is stated at 1 October 1984, at which time the latest available volume of the Zimbabwe Law Reports was 1982 (I). January 1985 R H Christie
