They don’t make them like that any more. Francis Mann’s intellect could crush the most complex problem into a bite-size portion; and his nature was to dispatch the problem, authoritatively and elegantly, without delay. His magisterial monograph on The Legal Aspect of Money, the major articles reproduced in the Studies in International Law and Further Studies in International Law; and the combative and occasionally quirky Foreign Affairs in English Courts, in which he revisited some of the cases in which he had been involved as a practitioner: these stand as the main monument to one of the outstanding lawyers of the century. But the present volume, containing 80 case notes and comments and his one speech, are perhaps more quintessentially his than those more substantial pieces.

The notes span the period from 1942 (Lorentzen v. Lyddon & Co. Ltd) to 1992 (Hiscox v. Outhwaite). They contain some of Mann’s most trenchant pieces, including his comments on landmark decisions such as Miliangos, Boys v. Chaplin, Dyestuffs, Oppenheimer v. Cattermole and I Congreso. The narrow and precise focus of each note gives the analysis and the writing a peculiar intensity. Drawn from the Law Quarterly Review, the Modern Law Review, the International and Comparative Law Quarterly and Arbitration International, most if not all of the pieces will already be present in most law libraries. And, while the notes all concern international law, commercial law or arbitration, there is no more specific theme which links them in such a way as to make the volume of particular value to any specific class of lawyers—except, perhaps, those who delight in the remorseless criticism of the judiciary, of which Dr Mann could be a most talented and entertaining practitioner.

The argument for having these papers collected in a single volume must rest ultimately upon the innate quality of each of them: the book has much more in common with Hazlitt’s essays than with Halsbury’s Laws. Connoisseurs of legal writing, as well as those in search of the penetrating critique of an individual case, will relish the collection. The notes and comments are classic examples of the miniaturist’s art, from an author who was also master of the broadest landscapes.