The latest edition of Chorley & Giles’ Shipping Law is the first for which neither of the authors is responsible. Lord Chorley died in 1978, after the publication of the 6th edition of this book, and O. C. Giles died in 1980, shortly after the publication of the 7th edition. Three members of the Institute of Maritime Law at the University of Southampton have now taken over the editorship of this work.

I think that I am not alone in regarding the previous edition of Shipping Law as a disappointing work. It was not well-structured, it often lacked depth, and (with due respect to the current editors, who say in their Preface that the work had an “established tradition of clarity and readability”) it was often difficult to understand and at times simply confusing. Moreover, the paucity of case references made it particularly unsatisfactory as an introductory text for law students and general legal practitioners. O. C. Giles would no doubt have countered the last criticism by pointing to the fact that Shipping Law had originally been written as an elementary textbook for commerce students and non-lawyers, and not for law students or legal practitioners. But this work has for so long been regarded as a legal text that it seems not unfair to review it as an introductory textbook for law students, if not for qualified lawyers.

The three new editors clearly faced a difficult initial decision when they commenced their preparation for this work. Either they could simply update the existing book, and leave the general structure of the work and much of its text unaltered, or they could undertake a more substantial revision. In the end they chose the former course. Their Preface indicates that they did so on account of time limits placed upon them for the completion of the current edition and also out of respect for the original text. I cannot help wondering, however, whether their efforts were really worth it. It is true that they have provided many more case references throughout the text, and for this law students and generalist legal practitioners alike will certainly be grateful. The current editors have also brought the work commendably up to date: they have noted not only the many legislative changes that have occurred since the last edition was published but also the various developments in international Conventions. Despite all its good features, however, the general structure of the book remains unsatisfactory, the work continues to be superficial in many important respects, and it is still far from lucid in many parts of the text.

For the most part, the current editors have chosen to follow the existing structure of the book, with only minor changes. The section on the limitation of a shipowner’s liability now appropriately follows the chapter on collisions. This is a welcome change. There is also an initial new chapter on legal disputes involving ships, and a separate chapter on time bars. Most of the book, however, follows the plan of the previous edition but with the former, rather lengthy chapters now divided into smaller separate chapters.

The division of the former chapters into smaller chapters does not, however, always work well. There are two reasons for this. First, the topics dealt with in the former chapters were not always in a satisfactory order. This was particularly the case in respect of former Chapter