Undergraduate courses on the law of international trade suffer a lack of up-to-date introductory works realistically within the financial limits of the student pocket. This book aims to help fill the void. It covers those topics normally to be found in law degree courses which deal with the private law relationships relevant to international sales. Thus, it covers, in the first chapter, background material on sale of goods and, in six subsequent chapters, the law on c.i.f. and f.o.b. contracts, bills of lading, carriage of goods by sea, marine insurance, documentary credits, and conflicts of law problems. The straightforward style of writing, the system of dividing chapters up into fairly short paragraphs, and the general lack of clutter (no footnotes, limited references and cross references), features in common with other books from this publisher’s stable, will certainly give the book student appeal. An important feature also is that the author tends to approach the subject largely through discussion of case law. This provides a welcome emphasis of the importance of case law. Stimulating academic discussion of some of the more central cases such as Pyrene v. Scindia Navigation [1954] 2 Q.B. 402 and Gill & Duffus v. Berger [1984] A.C. 382 will help also in the efforts of tutors to encourage students to develop a critical appreciation of decision-making in the field.

Despite the above features and possibly, in part, as a consequence of this last feature, the book is surprisingly hard to follow, especially from the point of view of a student coming to the subject afresh. For instance, the chapter on sale of goods deals naturally enough with basic sale concepts, but also discusses the detail relevant to trade terms in respect of passing of property rules, rights of rejection and other remedies before there has been any introduction to the meaning of the terms themselves. A similar pattern, reflecting poor organization of material, occurs here and there, examples being the collection of several basic features of sale terms into the rather simplified summary at the end of the chapter and the unclear interlacing of common law rules and the Hague-Visby Rules in the chapter on carriage by sea.