This book is both highly topical and, in some respects, overtaken by events. The law is stated at 1 June 2007, although the book did not become available until December 2007. The bank liquidity crisis caused by widespread defaults under United States sub-prime mortgages, as repackaged and securitized, started in mid-August 2007. This review is written at the end of the week which will be remembered and analysed for a long time, in which Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, HBOS was acquired by Lloyds TSB and the US Treasury Security announced an unprecedented programme aimed at containing the crisis. The book contains one foreshadower of the events which have occurred since it went to print—a reference by Lord Woolf in the foreword (presumably written in the third or fourth quarter of 2007) to “[products] backed by sub-prime mortgages of domestic properties in California”. One of the many things this book does is to describe in clear terms the types of transaction which have caused a collapse in the irresponsibly-banked US housing market to threaten the stability of the global financial system.

Dr Benjamin analyses financial legal relationships in terms of five structures or concepts. These provide the framework for a comprehensive mapping of financial law. The author’s skills combine the vision of Mercator with the precision of an Admiralty hydrographer. One’s admiration of these skills is not lessened by the fact that certain parts of the world she describes—or at least our perception of them—have now changed. The conceptual analysis is valid and compelling. Four of the author’s five concepts are simple positions, funded positions, net positions and asset-backed positions. Simple positions are obligations to pay a sum of money, eg, guarantees or insurance. Funded positions involve the raising of debt or equity capital. Net positions exist where set-off or netting of obligations are available. Asset-backed positions involve security, quasi-security and the functional equivalents of security. The author draws out a number of themes or trends. These include: the convergence of the financial markets and the blurring of traditional distinctions between different sectors and techniques; the reduction of the importance of property and security as a result of increased use of derivatives and reliance on set-off or netting; and, above all, the underlying theme of risk transfer.

In addition to providing thought-provoking and novel analysis, the book is a user-friendly reference work on many of the areas of difficulty to be encountered by the finance lawyer. This is despite the author’s (correct) disclaimer that the book is not an encyclopaedia. Where coverage is not as full as the reader might require, he or she is pointed to other sources. There are copious