Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
Book reviews
Mat Campbell
EUROPEAN TORT LAW, 2nd edn. Cees van Dam, Independent legal consultant. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2013) lii plus 583 pp main text plus 3 pp Bibliography and
13 pp Index. Hardback £95; paperback £29.99.
This book is about comparative tort law: European, French, German, English and that of a new Ius commune (at 5–6). A solid introduction to a topic which many consider to be important would be most welcome. Unfortunately, this book does not satisfy that need. This review raises some of the concerns which should be addressed before another edition.
Starting point
Difficulties arise from the outset. A brief introduction to the unification of Europe might be useful, if it were specific enough to the private law arena to aid understanding during the rest of the book. However, it is quite vague. For example (at 3):
“The six original members of the [European Coal and Steel Community] had wanted the United Kingdom to be a founding member but the then Prime Minister Clement Attlee is reported to have dismissed the project as ‘six
Book reviews
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