Book excerpt: Concerned with the area of illegal transactions, this text addresses practical issues, for example: who can raise the issue of illegality?; must illegality be pleaded? And when can a party recover money or property transferred pursuant to an illegal transaction? Divided into three main sections the text: deals with illegality as a defence to claims in various departments of the civil law; and examines the forfeiture rule as a tool which one party could compel another to disgorge profits which the other has acquired or would otherwise acquire from his illegal conduct. The third section of the text discusses the circumstances when, by way of exception, the court will enforce the claim of a person even though that person has been guilty of an illegality. Overall the text provides an account of the illegalities in civil law and a critical analysis of the current rules, with suggestions for reform.