There are many “black holes” in shipping law. Delay in the context of cargo claims is among the deepest. The subject has suffered by being reduced to a series of appendages to treatments of other disparate topics, such as deviation and quantum of damages. Consequently, the first thought of many a solicitor when faced with such a problem might, understandably, be to instruct counsel. The publication of this excellent text should obviate the need for such action in future.

The book’s aim is to deal with cargo delays as a coherent subject in its own right. Its distinctive feature is that it is a comparative study between United States and English law. Unlike other such studies, it does not have separate sections for each system of law. Instead, the general discussion takes in both U.S. and English decisions in the same text. Although this can be irritating, requiring constant scanning of the footnotes to identify the source of the decision, this is more than offset by the advantage of allowing the subject to unfold as a whole. One, perhaps, inevitable consequence of this approach is that the book is very much slanted towards the Hague Rules, with the Hague-Visby Rules tagging along behind.

The authors first consider deviation, the spatial element of a contract of carriage, which they stress is quite distinct from its time element—a distinction that is often overlooked but is of crucial importance in view of the drastic consequences peculiar to deviation. This time obligation, the duty of the carrier to proceed with reasonable despatch, is then carefully analysed and set in the context of the Hague Rules and related to the broader issues of causation. Delay as a primary cause of loss is thoughtfully distinguished from delay as a secondary cause flowing from the breach of some other obligation, such as that of providing a seaworthy vessel. The book concludes with a substantial analysis of how the rules of remoteness of damage operate in the context of cargo delays, particularly with delays of goods intended for use by the consignee rather than re-sale.

The book arranges its material in a clear and logical manner which makes the relevant English and U.S. law readily accessible to any practitioner seeking the answer to a particular point. Its great virtue is the fact that it stresses the fundamental distinctions in the subject, which are too often apt to be overlooked. It is also extremely illuminating on some of the more shadowy areas of the law which are liable to give rise to complex and sometimes urgent problems in practice. One such instance is the nature and extent of the carrier’s duty to the goods owner when delays arise and whether the carrier may, or must, then deviate or tranship to minimize its effects.

However, the book is not without its flaws. There is a tendency to over-emphasize general statements of principle, particularly from the English authorities, at the expense of a more detailed analysis of their distinguishing facts. By the end of the chapter on the basic time obligation, I was heartily sick of the word “reasonable”. I was also surprised at the lack of any real discussion of frustration in the book other than in the context of the right to repudiate for breaches which frustrate the commercial purpose of the contract. But these are minor flaws which do not prevent this from being a very good book indeed and one I would certainly recommend to any practitioners involved with cargo claims. Its purchase would relieve them of the necessity of trawling the interstices of the established texts and give them