The Gazette 1975

chapters contains, where relevant, the additional mate- rial already referred to. Like similar case books, it is invaluable for quick reference to leading judgments, and practitioners cannot do without it.

itself a remarkable achievement. Amongst the more recent cases, Lewis v. Averay (1972) 1 Q.B D. is well known, as a rogue obtained a car fraudulently repres- enting himself as the actor Richard Greene; when the rogue sold the car, it was held that the plaintiff could not recover, as the contract was made with the person present. In Snelling v. Snelling Ltd. (1973) Q.B.D., one of three partner brothers resigned from the firm as a result of disputes; he unsuccessfully claimed money due to him, as a prior agreement had been made not to refund any such claim. In Jarvis v. Swan Tours Ltd. (1973) Q.B.D., the plaintiff solicitor recovered dama- ges from a travel firm for making wild and unsustained statements about non-existent amenities. The custo- mary clarity and precision has been displayed in dis- cussing legal principles and cases. The work is as useful as ever to practitioners. The learned authors are law lecturers in Oxford and Cambridge respectively, and, like many of their col- leagues in other fields of law, they have adopted the American method of introducing related material, such as Reports of the English Law Commission, British Official Committee Reports on various aspects of law reform, and some of the more interesting articles culled from legal periodical literature. They rightly point out, in the Introduction, that, apart from compensation, the law of fort may be used as a vehicle in determining rights, such as in actions for trespass or conversion; they have also stressed the lack of unity in the classifi- cation of torts. Negligence as a tort has gradually assumed a preponderant place, because common lawyers are more interested in finding a practical solution than in dogma. Thus the student is inevitably faced with the somewhat contradictory use of concepts, such as "duty", "cause", "damage", "risk" and "reasonable fore- sight"". The modern tendency of the law of tort is to substitute the law as it actually operates in society to the former specialised language of lawyers. The real distinction is between the different interests which the law seeks to protect, and not between the money terms in which these interests are compensated for harm. Pro- fessor Tunc would separate the moral or deterrent function of case law based on the fault principle from the compensatory function which arises from human error. These are all questions for the future. From a practical point of view, the authors have divided their work into three, Torts to physical interests, Torts to Non-physical interests and Loss Distribution. The first part includes all aspects of negligence as well as intentional injuries to the person, trespass, nuisance and damage. The second part includes defamation, malicious prosecution, false statements affecting econo- mic interests, conspiracy, industrial disputes and pass- ing off. The third part includes vicarious liability whether by employers or independent contractors, the liability of joint tortfeasors and the principles of compulsory motor insurance. The New Zealand Acci- dent Compensation Act 1972 which introduced the principle of no fault insurance is fully set out in an appendix. Apart from the well-knqwn and not so well-known cases on particular aspects of tort, each of the 20 Hepple (B .A.) and M. H. Matthews—Tort: Cases and Material:-. London : Butterworth, 1974; £6.00 Paper- back; xxix, 747p.

Jacobs, Francis G.— The European Convention of Human Rights. Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1975; £7.25; xi, 286p. The learned author, who is Professor of European Law in the University of London, was formerly on the staff of the European Commission of Human Rights in Strasbourg, and has thus acquired an intimate know- ledge of this intricate subject. He stresses that the inter- national protection of human rights has been most fully and systematically developed under the European Con- vention for the Protection of Human Rights and Funda- mental Freedoms, to which Ireland was a signatory, in November, 1950. It is not generally realised that, by Article 3, the Member States bound themselves absolu- tely to accept the principles of the rule of law, and of the enjoyment by all persons within their jurisdiction, of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and Article 8 provides for the eventual expulsion of a member who has breached these Articles. Up to then, Human Rights fell traditionally within the domestic jurisdiction of States. The European Commission sifts stringently indi- vidual applications; of the 6,000 applications presented before the end of 1973, only 100 were declared admiss- ible, The grounds of rejection are threefold, either that the complaint is incompatible with the provisions of the Convention, or that the domestic remedies have not been exhausted, or that the complaint is manifestly ill- founded. The Commission sends an opinion as to whether there has been a violation to the Committee of Ministers, and within 3 months, this may be referred to the Court; this is what has happened in the case of Ireland's complaint that the British Army had tortured prisoners in Northern Ireland. There is little doubt but that the provisions of the Treaty should be interpreted objectively, and that the presumption that treaty obli- gations should be applied restrictively since they dero- gate from the sovereignty of States does not apply to the Convention. Part II deals with Rights and examines in detail Article 2 (The Right to life), Article 3 (Inhuman or degrading Treatment), Article 4 (Slavery and forced labour), Article 5 (Liberty of the person, including the conditions authorising arrest and detention), Article 6 (The right to a fair trial), Article 7 (The principle— No punishment without legal sanction), Article 8 (Pri- vacy and family life), Articles 9 to 11 (Freedom of thought, conscience, expression and assembly), Article 12 (The right to marry, and Protocols dealing with property rights, education, free elections, freedom of movement and freedom from discrimination). Part III deals with Restrictions to the Convention such as abuse of power, emergency powers and reservations. Part IV deals with remedies, and sets out in great detail the procedure before the Commission and the Court. The main result is that the individual can now be accepted as a proper subject of International Law. Great indebtedness must be expressed to Professor Jacobs for the dedication and erudition displayed in this work. The publishers have maintained their usual high standing of printing and presentation, and per-