Mr Raphael explains that his production of a Supplement to the book published a couple of years ago results from the need, as he states in the Preface, to reflect the “steady flow of case law combined with a superfluity of academic commentary”. It is true that there has been a number of cases, some of significance, though whether their combined weight is sufficient to warrant a supplement is debatable. Those who have contributed to the academic commentary may be surprised to learn that their work is something Mr Raphael could have done without, but they will, one assumes, bear this with such fortitude as they can summon.

It can hardly be said that the new authority, most of which will be found in the Dicey Supplement, breaks much new ground, but the routine application of established principle to slightly novel sets of fact, and the occasional first instance decision which goes off on a frolic of its own, adds a little to the corpus of the law. In a couple of places, the significance of judicial decisions for the development of the law is larger. This may, perhaps especially, be said of the various aftermaths of Allianz AG v West Tankers Inc (Case C-185/07) [2009] ECR I-663; [2009] AC 1138; [2009] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 413, known to others as The Front Comor, and which was not to hand when Mr Raphael first wrote. These developments are all very well (or, in the case of The Front Comor, all very bad); but, while we are waiting for the right constellation of facts to appeal before the right appellate tribunal, it is for the academic commentators to tease out the meaning and effects of the new material. Mr Raphael’s contribution to that exercise is available to all those with £35 to spare.