The Gazette 1967/71

of the Courts in the Republic of Ireland and the Courts of England of acting in aid of each other has survived the constitutional changes in Ireland and a number of Orders have been made in the Republic of Ireland under Section 70 of the Bankruptcy (Ireland) Amendment Act 1872 directing the Courts here to act in aid of the English Courts and the Irish Courts have also been granted such Orders in England. This work is well bound, excellently printed and for present times reasonably priced at £5.50 and will be a most useful addition to the library of solicitors and barristers in Ireland interested in this branch of the law. R. G. H. CARTER. Goode (R. M.) Hire Purchase Law and Practice. 2nd Edition. 8vo. Pp. LXXII, 1,302. London, Butterworth, 1970. £12. This is the Second Edition of a work which first appeared in 1962. This Edition has been re written completely, includes no less than sixteen new Chapters and must now rank as the standard work on the subject. There is a comprehensive Index of 45 pages. Because of Governmental Regulations controlling deposits on Hire Pur chase Agreements, there is a trend nowadays for finance companies to avoid (evade?) the pro visions of the Hire Purchase Acts by making personal loans to the buyer or by the use of trading cheques, and it seems clear that the law relating to instalment credit will have to be extended to embrace these methods of financing the sale of consumer goods. It is interesting to recall that modern Hire Purchase Law stems from a decision of the House of Lords in 1895 holding that a hirer of goods with an option to purchase was not able to pass title to a bona fide purchaser for a value without notice of the Hire Purchase Agreement. As with most English text books the reader must be care ful to discern where English law departs from that of Ireland. In particular our law does not give protection to the bona fide purchaser of a motor vehicle (but see Section 28 of Hire Purchase Act, 1960) or a "cooling off" period during which a

hirer may decide to rescind an Agreement which were both brought into English law in 1964. There is an interesting explanation in Appendix A as to the cost of borrowing on a hire purchase basis and Appendix E contains some very good precedents. The publishers are to congratulated upon a most legible presentation. This book is highly recommended. M. R. CURRAN. LAW IN A CHANGING SOCIETY Mr. Brendan McGrath, President of the Incorporated Law Society, who is also President of the Medico-Legal Society, said in the course of a talk given by the Medico-Legal Society on the subject of "The Law in a Changing Society" that freedom is not the power of doing what we like but the right of being able to do what we ought. All may not be well in contemporary society as manifested by the growth of State intervention, the dehumanisation of work, the feeling of re moteness and non-participation in vital decision- making, the upsurge of violence, the deterioration of morals, the rule of the trend, the excitement of the gimmick, the almost total equation of leisure with fun and of ease with indolence. Nevertheless if protest and demonstration lays claim to support the search for a better quality of life, society is entitled to expect of the pro testors and demonstrators that they have some defined objects. To obey only the laws you like unsupported by any positive programme for action is nihilism. Equally any call for Law and Order which is resistant to change is as unproduc tive as the revolutionary with a theory of revolu tion. Law must be seen as an instrument designed to enhance the welfare of the community by promot ing the human values for which society exists. What law is cannot be separated from what it is for, and what it is for cannot be separated from what it ought to be. It ought to reflect the com munity's moral conscience in conformity with the declared purpose of the Constitution "to promote the common good so that the dignity and freedom of the individual may be assured." 219