There can be no doubt of the increasing significance of membership of the European Community for conflict of laws in the United Kingdom, and both these contrasting books demonstrate this. One is an attempt at a general survey of the role of conflict of laws in the European Community, the other a highly specialized book on one part of conflict of laws within the Community.

The Lasok and Stone book is in two parts—the first a general survey on the European Community and the conflict of laws, the second concentrating on particular international Conventions. These parts are completely distinct. Part II consists simply of straightforward accounts of four Conventions. Not far short of one half of the entire text is taken up with an exposition of the now familiar European Community Convention on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments, which came into force in the United Kingdom on 1 January 1987. The text of this Convention, as amended to take into account the accession of Greece, and the Protocol on its interpretation by the European Court of Justice are contained in appendices. One chapter is devoted to the Rome Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations, signed in 1980, but not yet in force, and the text of this too is included in an appendix. The draft proposals on choice of law in tort, ultimately dropped from the Rome Convention, are also discussed. A further chapter is devoted to the Draft Bankruptcy Convention. All these are Community Conventions, but a chapter is also included on the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. While this is not a Community Convention, all the Member States of the Community except Portugal are also parties to this Convention and its inclusion is quite justified, since it complements the Judgments Convention, and its existence was the reason for the exclusion of arbitration from the scope of that Convention. The primary purpose of these chapters is expository, and Mr Stone, who it appears from the Preface was the author of these chapters, gives a competent description of the provisions, together with stimulating critical observations and proposals for future development. There are two particular reservations which I have about this part of the book. First, Mr Stone’s style is not always the most elegant; and, at least with the Judgments Convention, he is unfortunate in having particularly lucid works of similar scope as comparisons. Collins, The Civil Jurisdiction and Judg-