This book is a commentary on the EEC Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, implemented in the United Kingdom by the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982. The legislation, when it comes into force, will effect significant changes in the existing law relating to the jurisdiction of English courts in cases involving persons “domiciled” in the EEC and will facilitate the enforcement of the judgments of courts of other EEC Member States in the U.K. Over half the book is taken up with the appendices, which contain the text of the Act, some of the revised Rules of the Supreme Court due to come into force with the legislation, and short extracts from the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Extrajudicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Matters from the Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations. There are useful cross-references between the appendices and the commentary.

The book is intended for the practitioner and the author assumes no knowledge of conflict of laws and practically none of Community Law. He explains lucidly the background to the legislation and Convention and their relationship to the objectives of the EEC and explains the role of the European Court of Justice generally before considering its particular function in the interpretation of the Convention. He gives careful exposition of concepts peculiar to the conflict of laws and avoids the use of its technical language without clear explanation.

The form of the book is largely dictated by its subject matter and Hartley is generally successful in presenting a clear and ordered exposition of an involved piece of legislation. It is the author’s experience as a specialist in Community Law which gives this book its particular strengths. He draws on this to explain the thinking behind particular provisions and demonstrates forcibly by reference to judgments of the European Court of Justice that it will not be possible simply to apply a common lawyer’s approach to statutory interpretation to the Convention.