Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
CHESHIRE, FIFOOT & FURMSTON’S LAW OF CONTRACT (11TH EDITION)
CHESHIRE, FIFOOT & FURMSTON’S LAW OF CONTRACT (11th Edition) by M. P. Furmston, T.D., B.C.L., M.A., LL.M., of Gray’s Inn, Barrister, Professor of Law in the University of Bristol, with Historical Introduction by A. W. B. Simpson, M.A., D. C.L., J.P., Professor of Law in the University of Chicago. Butterworths, London (1986, liii and 655 pp., plus 37 pp. Index). Hardback £28; paperback £18.95.
There is limited scope for valuable comment upon the structural approach adopted to the subject in works of this nature at a general level. A reference work on contract law must commence with a statement of principles of formation and proceed via discussion of such issues as content and vitiating elements to those of discharge and remedies. Inevitably, Professor Furmston continues to respect this inviolable structure. On the whole this updating exercise has been performed more than adequately. However, there are three principal ways in which beneficial amendments to this work could have been made.
My first suggestion concerns the discussion of discharge or variation of contracts by agreement, dealt with in Chapter 19. As this is but one form of discharge it appears at first sight to be correctly positioned with the other means of discharge towards the end of the book. Within this chapter Professor Furmston deals with the doctrine of common law waiver of contractual rights, which for present purposes we can define as the effect at common law of a clear undertaking by one party not to enforce a contractual right in circumstances in which
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