The law relating to illegality and public policy is notoriously complex and uncertain. This book is an important contribution to the literature on this troublesome branch of the law. It comes at a time when the Law Commission of England and Wales is still in the process of deciding what reform proposals to make to the Government following publication of their consultation papers No. 154 on Illegal Transactions: The Effect of Illegality on Contracts and Trusts (1999) and No. 160 on the Illegality Defence in Tort (2001).

The book does not pretend to be a general work on the law relating to illegality as it applies in various branches of the law. Since it is published in the Contract Law Library series, it confines itself (quite rightly) to ‘‘illegality in the contractual context’’. Therefore it does not deal with illegality in the context of other areas of the law such as tort or trusts, although it treats of illegality and proprietary interests (ch 16), illegality and restitution (ch 17) and, to a lesser extent, illegality and succession (paras 5.29–5.35). The chapters on proprietary interests and restitution are consistent with the scope of the book since the proprietary interests in question are those arising from agreements affected by illegality and the restitutionary claims considered are claims arising from agreements rendered ineffective by reason of illegality. But it is not obvious how illegality and succession fits into a work on illegality in the contractual context.

The work is generally well-structured. It opens with an ‘‘Introduction’’ which helpfully explains the nature and scope of illegality and the structure of the book. The rest of the book is divided into five parts. Part One deals with ‘‘Contravening the law’’. In Part Two the author discusses ‘‘Public Policy’’. Agreements in ‘‘Restraint of Trade’’ are treated in Part Three. Part Four explains the circumstances when there may be ‘‘Relief from the Consequences’’. And, finally, Part Five looks at ‘‘Reform’’. Issues of illegality in the contractual context usually revolve around two main questions. First, is the agreement tainted with illegality? If not, that is the end of the matter. If yes, the second question presents itself: what is the effect of the illegality?

Parts One–Three of the book deal mostly with the first question. A contract may be affected with illegality either because it involves a contravention of a rule of law (whether common law or statute) or because, although it does not infringe a positive rule of law, it is illegal as being contrary to public policy. Agreements in restraint of trade are illegal in that they contravene the common law and/or statutes designed to promote competition. In dealing with the question whether a contract is illegal, the author tackles head on the difficult question of how to determine whether a contract is impliedly prohibited by statute (ch 2). The author also addresses (ch 4) the controversial question whether, under common law, if one party’s performance or purpose is illegal, mere knowledge (without actual participation) of the other party is enough to make that party involved in the illegality and therefore to defeat his claim. The author expresses his views on these issues with great clarity. Whether one agrees with the views is of course a separate matter.

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