The Gazette 1972

Tax Planning by Phillip Lawton; fifth edition; London,

days in June and July 1952. Otherwise the present edition is well up to the standard of its predecessors. Employers' Liability at Common Law by John Munk- man; seventh edition; London, Butterworth, 1971; 8vo; pp. lxxi plus 636; £4.80. This volume has undergone seven editions since its first publication in 1949 which proves how useful it has been to practitioners. Broadly speaking, if the present edi- tion is compared to the second edition (1952), which contained 478 pages, the chapter headings have not changed vitally. There is first an account of the lia- bility at common law, followed by a statement of the employer's general duty to take care for the safety of his servants in the course of their employment. The intriguing question of breach of statutory duty together with the possible defence of contributory negligence is fully explored. The learned author points out that, as things stand, the law of negligence controls most of the field of activity for personal injury; and capricious and vague though it is, we have to make the best of it. Its recent prominence was essentially due to nineteenth century ethical writers who supposed that the law of tort was a code of conduct with damages as a sanction for doing something blameworthy. In fact the law of tort is about the duty to compensate. Blameworthy con- duct consists in refusing to pay for damage sustained. We agree with the author in considering some argu- ments as to foreseeability as unrealistic, and in eschew- ing to discuss purely political concepts like "social jus- tice" or "social engineering". The author also rightly emphasises how important it is not to use the law of negligence to expand liability for indirect consequences beyond all reason. In many American States, the rule of strict liability applies to the manufacturer of a defec- tive article. Mr. Munkman has considered all the impor- tant English and Scottish case law upon various topics —factory law, fencing, building contracts, etc. This volume has well maintained the standard of previous editions, and is essential for the practitioner who is faced with a ny intricate problems of employe's liability. Manual of the Law of Evidence by S. L. Phipson; tenth edition by D. W. Elliott; London, Sweet & Max- well, 1972; 8vo; pp. xxxvi plus 338; hardback £3.50, paperback £2.75. Professor Elliott succeeded the author and Sir Roland Burrows as editor of this well-known manual since the eighth edition (1959). Due to up to date case law and the English Civil Evidence Act, 1968, the learned edi- tor has unavoidably extended his text (less Index) from 260 pages in the eighth edition to 329 pages in the cur- rent edition. The chapter on similar facts and character now contains thirty pages (formerly seventeen); and estoppel and burden of proof have been expanded. There is a new chapter as to statement admissible under the 1968 Act. Students who have used previous editions are already aware of the clarity and precision which mark this work, which is strongly recommended to practitioners who wish to consult a preliminary point on the law of evidence, and be led to Phipson's and 182

Oyez Publications, 1971; 8vo; £ 1.75.

This is the fifth edition of a work whose aim is to pro- vide a short readable booklet on tax planning. This work falls easily into the framework of the Oyez series which is familiar to so many lawyers and students. In 141 pages the author travails the whole list of areas of tax planning from catering for "film star companies" (a chapter entitled "companies formed for special pur- poses", which includes a review of the value of "service companies" to large firms of solicitors), to catering for "the family unit". The style of the writing is at once engaging and adapted to the probable reader, namely, the student and the accountant. On page 74 one finds the process whereby an unlimited company switches to limited liability sardonically compared to a change of sex. On page 101 one finds a reference to a changeable gain being "rolled over". The reference to decided cases is kept to a bare minimum. Taken overall, this work may be recommended as a comprehensive survey of a complicated area of law. To a thorough treatment of the revenue law is wedded a readable and practical summary of the workings of the arrangements in the many areas in which they are desirable. B. P. Dempsey The Law of Patents by Thomas Terrell; twelfth edition by Douglas Falconer, William Aldous and David Young; London, Sweet & Maxwell, 1971; 8vo; pp. xlviii plus 706; £12.00. Terrell has been the leading textbook on the law of patents since its first publication in 1884, and, in view of the developments taking place, it is not surprising that there have been no less than three editions in ten years. The tenth edition containing 660 pages had been published in 1961 by the late Mr. Shelley. He had already emphasised the importance of extensive quota- tions from older cases to endeavour to solve some of the difficulties. The editors of the eleventh edition, which contained 698 pages in 1965, rightly stressed that the aim of this magnum opus has always been to set out reliably and accurately what is the current English law of patents. The present editors have admir- ably succeeded in thss aim, and have wisely decided to ignore the Banks Committee Report 1971 until legis- lation ensues. In the modern edition, this book has been divided into fifteen chapters, and each chapter contains useful paragraph numbers with appropriate title in respect of each new title; each paragraph is duly listed in the Index for easy reference. It is a moot point whether it is necessary to reprint in a new edition in detail all the cases mentioned in a former edition. It would seem that, unless the previous edition were out of print, much material could have been saved by bringing out a supplement containing the new matter only at a reasonable cost. It seems amazing that no consideration appears to have been given to Mr. Jus- tice Budd's famous judgment in Solon v Bord na Mona about a patent relating to a device in a turf winning machine, and fully reported in pages 5 to 40 of vol. 90 (1956) of the Irish Law Times Reports; it will be re- called that this ca:e had been at hearing for eighteen