In this welcome collection of contributions to the Colston Symposium in 1984 the emphasis is almost entirely on legal liability for unintentionally causing pure economic loss to a noncontractor. This subject was very much in the air in England in 1981, when the Symposium was planned, for Junior Books Ltd. v. Veitchi Co. Ltd. [1983] 1 A.C. 520 was about to suggest that a person whose conduct was careless but not dangerous might be liable to anyone close enough who thereby suffered foreseeable economic harm, and to bring into question the decision in Spartan Steel & Alloys Ltd. v. Martin & Co. (Contractors) Ltd. [1973] Q.B. 27 that a defendant whose dangerous conduct had actually caused physical harm to a plaintiff not very far away might not be liable for the distinct economic harm suffered in the same accident.

Just a few years later, we can quite confidently answer the questions put by Michael Furmston in his Introduction, whether Junior Books was a mountain or a mouse, whether Spartan Steel is still good law, and whether a careless manufacturer is liable for commercial loss suffered by the ultimate consumer of a defective product. In giving a negative answer to the last question, the lobster case (Muirhead v. Industrial Tank Specialities Ltd. [1986] Q.B. 507), far from ratifying Junior Books, made a mouse of it, and Spartan Steel has been laconically entrenched by Candlewood Navigation Corp. Ltd. v. Mitsui Osk Lines Ltd. (The Mineral