The launch of a new journal devoted specifically to the law of contract is to be welcomed warmly. The rate of development of contract law, both judge-made and statutory, shows little sign of slowing. There is increased awareness of the vital role that other conceptual areas of law, particularly tortious recovery for economic loss and restitution, play in the legal regulation of what may broadly be called the contracting process: in this first issue of the Journal of Contract Law, articles by Emil Hayek and Gareth Jones concentrate on these two topics. Meanwhile, academic commentators have been using new approaches to understanding the subject, such as economic analysis and empirical studies; and very lively debates have been taking place over the policies and values which underlie the “rule-book”, the nature of contractual liability and, indeed, whether it is still plausible to think in terms of a single law of contract.

The journal is particularly welcome because, as Dr Carter states in his editorial, it has as one of its purposes the explanation of ideas and developments occurring in Australia and New Zealand. The wealth of learning in existing cases from these jurisdictions is all too little known in England and, at a time when, as Sir Anthony Mason points out in the first article, the two are tending to develop their own distinctive bodies of contract law, a journal which can devote space to a thorough coverage of these matters will be most useful. The first issue shows clearly, however, that the journal will not be purely “Australian”: Hayek’s piece mentioned above is a helpful survey of recent cases in the Canadian Supreme Court on economic loss, concurrent liability in tort and contract and limitation, while Dr Carter and David Yates contribute a thoughtful piece on export licences, and whether the seller is promising to obtain a licence or only to use its best endeavours, in the light of the English Court of Appeal’s decision in Pagnan S.p.A. v. Tradax Ocean Transportation S.A. [1987] 2 Lloyd’s Rep. 342.

It cannot be easy to launch a new journal, and an issue containing a number of short but telling discussions of recent developments must be as good an approach as any. I hope that colleagues will submit to the editor longer and perhaps more reflective pieces as well, for these are equally needed. To take a single instance, Kevin Nicholson, in his valuable survey of the latest Australian and English cases on when a party may recover loss of bargain damages after exercising a contractual right to terminate for a non-essential breach, simply