Over 300 years ago, Izaak Walton noted that “No life is so happy and so pleasant as the life of a well-governed angler; for when the lawyer is swallowed up with business, and the statesman is preventing or contriving plots, then we sit on cowslips-banks, then hear the birds sing, and possess ourselves in as much quietness as these silent silver streams” (The Compleat Angler). Walton’s romantic picture was quoted in Michael Gregory’s Angling and the Law, published in 1974, and, until Mr Howarth’s new book, the most recent British text devoted exclusively to the subject. Though a valuable guide, much of Gregory’s work has since been overtaken by new legislation passed in the intervening years and Freshwater Fishery Law is therefore to be welcomed as a clear, up-to-date account of what is a highly specialized and often obscure area of the law.

The book is confined to the law of England and Wales and, as the title suggests, is basically concerned with the regulation of fishing and fisheries in inland waters. The vast majority of those engaged in the activity do so for recreational purposes—by all accounts more people in Britain participate in angling than any other form of active recreation. The type of major commercial and national interests present in maritime sea fishing and the regulation of which demands special forms of international legal regimes are simply not present. Yet, as Howarth notes, this has not prevented the growth of a complex body of law in this field, with the result that angling possesses “a legal character which is distinct from all other sports”. Intricate and often long-standing principles of private property law have determined rights to fish in waters. And, in contrast to most forms of recreation (but in common with other forms of hunting), the interests of those engaged in fishing are centred and dependent on a living nucleus. Fish require, for the continued good health of the sport, protection from overexploitation—much of the law concerning fishing methods is essentially concerned with preventing over-efficiency—and freedom from pollution. The same is true for more commercial forms of fishing and, not surprisingly, the subject has played a significant role in the historical development of what is now termed environmental law.

Much of the relevant statutory law is currently consolidated in the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975, and at least a half of the book is devoted to what amounts to a section-by-section annotated guide, with the full text of the Act contained in an Appendix. Separate chapters are devoted to other areas such as fish-farming, water abstraction and water pollution, and there is a valuable discussion of the powers of water bailiffs and similar officers and the relevance of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 to their work. The general approach and structure indicates what appears to be the author’s main aim—to provide an account of the law which is sufficiently accessible and ordered to be used by the non-lawyer working or involved in this field, yet retaining the degree of legal analysis and comprehensiveness to make the book suitable for recommending to the practitioner. For the most part, Mr Howarth succeeds well in what is never an easy balancing act, and has provided a lucid and convincing commentary. Aside from an academic legal base, he is someone well versed