The legal issues presented by disputed jurisdiction and arbitration clauses are well enough known. In dealing with them, one may look at the law at a general level, which will explain what these provisions are, and how they work in principle. Then there are a number of specific issues, whose application will depend on the facts of the particular case. These issues include separability (whether the clause is infected by a challenge to the validity of the substantive contract), scope (the range of disputes comprehended), nature (exclusive or otherwise), formal validity (the need for writing and signature), principles of incorporation (the language and other matters required in order to translate a clause from one contract to another), enforcement (strict, discretionary, dependent on convenience), and effect of mandatory laws which deprive the clause of its intended effect. Mr Sparka’s contribution to the learning in relation to these issues is sound, but contains little that is novel or that will cause readers to understand something which had hitherto puzzled them. He looks at these issues by reference to four systems: the law of the United States, the non-Brussels laws of England and of Germany, and the law established for the European Union by the Brussels Convention/ Regulation. The interaction between these (excluding the US, of course), which is made tricky because of the sparseness of the legislation and of the jurisprudence of the European Court, is touched on rather less than perhaps it might be; and this is part of a broader truth.

The book makes a contribution not previously available elsewhere in its treatment of these issues in particular connection with some maritime transport documents: bills of lading and their modern counterparts. The explanation of what these documents actually are is, again, perfectly sound, but it does little more than to provide a factual context in (or background against) which the legal principles can be grounded to see how they work. The writer reproduces some standard form clauses, which is certainly helpful. But the analysis does not really challenge the experienced reader. Take, for example, the bill of lading litigated in Coreck Maritime GmbH v. Handelsveem BV [2000] ECR I-9337, which provided for any dispute to be “decided in the country where the carrier has his principal place of business and the law of such country shall apply except as provided elsewhere herein”. It is notorious, surely, that this is a deceptively perplexing provision: the question of who the carrier is, and what is its principal place of business, can be answered only by making reference to the lex contractus, but, as the lex contractus is dependent on identifying the carrier’s principal place of business in the first place, the clause creates the kind of conundrum for which only training in the techniques of renvoi really prepares one. The writer does not direct his attention to any of these (see at 68). To take another, there is only one sentence (at 184) given to the problematic, but possibly very correct, French jurisprudence, which took a chilly view of the contention that jurisdiction agreements made inter alios can be imposed on those who receive cargo. And the assertion that this “does not apply to jurisdiction clauses under the Brussels-Lugano regime” (at 184 n 1175) is, surely, inadequate, not least because the Cour de Cassation does not altogether agree with

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