This latest edition of a well-known work on CIF and FOB contracts is a welcome addition to the literature on the English law of international sale of goods. The previous (fourth) edition of Sassoon was published in 1995 and a revised edition has long been overdue, particularly in such an incessantly developing area of the law. The new editorial team is led by Filippo Lorenzon but also contains contributions by Yvonne Baatz (who wrote Chapters 15 and 16 on jurisdiction and choice of law) and Lynne Skajaa and Chris Nicoll. The new edition has been substantially revised and restructured. The work now consists of five parts. Part I sets out the commercial and legal context surrounding CIF and FOB contracts and also deals with the passage of risk and property in the goods. The bulk of the work is found in Parts II (Chapters 3–8) and III (Chapters 9–12), which deal with physical and documentary obligations of the parties to CIF and FOB contracts and constitute the heart of the book. Part IV deals with force majeure, frustration and remedies. Part V addresses the issues of jurisdiction and applicable law.

The treatment of the issues which form the primary focus of the book—the rights and obligations of the seller and the buyer in CIF and FOB contracts—is very detailed and thorough. With this area of the law being highly technical, the clarity of the exposition cannot leave the reader unimpressed and is certainly one of the book’s main strengths. It retained some of the presentational features which were characteristic of the previous editions. Thus, key passages from cases are extensively reproduced, much more than one would normally expect in a specialist book of this kind. Mr Lorenzon explains the decision to continue with this format by the need to “maintain the very strong individualism of Sassoon’s original work” and by the belief that reading directly the key decisions is “the best way of explaining such a complex area of the law” (p.v)

In addition to its traditional concentration on English law, the book helpfully includes discussion of the INCOTERMS Rules 2010, because of their widespread use, their ability to promote uniformity in the way commodities trade is governed throughout the world and because trade terms such as CIF and FOB are extensively used, with INCOTERMS frequently incorporated into contracts. The prominent role of INCOTERMS in international trade poses the question whether there is or should be any relationship between them and the rules of English law on CIF and FOB contracts. Sassoon appears to point towards an affirmative answer. It rightly states that, whilst the definitions and provisions to be found in INCOTERMS are not binding on English courts, they “may nevertheless be used as proof of trade custom and furnish prima facie evidence where the scope or onus of any particular duty is in doubt because of lack of authority or absence of agreement express or implied” (at [3.004], in the context of defining a CIF contract). A specific example of how INCOTERMS can interact with and possibly influence English law can be found in a section dealing with the “FOB with additional services” contracts and their distinction from CIF contracts. A general default position is that, in the absence of a specific contractual stipulation to the contrary, the duty to reserve shipping space on a vessel in an FOB contract lies with the buyer. At first instance in DH Bain v Field & Co Fruit Merchants Ltd (1920) 3 Ll L Rep 26, Bailhache J famously suggested that this default position ran contrary to commercial practice involving “small parcels”, as opposed to cargoes. Sassoon, however, questions the existence of such a discrepancy between law and commercial practice by treating INCOTERMS as evidence of the latter and noting that INCOTERMS draw no distinction between small parcels and large cargoes. Finally, an English lawyer may also be surprised to learn that, as the book points out, the latest version of INCOTERMS allows an FOB buyer to procure the goods afloat, which, of course, in English law is possible only in CIF or C&F contracts.

In places, the book engages directly with legal scholarship, for example by disagreeing with the views presented in some other major texts, such as Benjamin’s Sale of Goods. In the context of the