The Gazette 1983

GAZETTE

APRIL 1983

BOOK REVIEW Clerk & Lindsell on Tor t s, Fifteenth Edition, Swe et & Ma xwe ll L t d ., Lo n d o n. General Editor: R . W . M. Dias. c c / x i v + 1 4 1 7 pp. £ 6 5 . 00 (Sterling) net. Th i s n ew ed i t i on of an established masterly work f o l l ows s e v en years after the f our t e en th edition. De s p i te considerable organisational rearrangement the format will be familiar to tort lawyers: over 1400 pages d i v i d ed in 29 chapters c on t r i bu t ed by s e v en d i s t i ngu i s hed editors w i th the who le under the Gene r al Ed i t o r s h ip of Mr. Dias. Sir Arthur Armi t ag e, wh o had b e en a joint General Editor o f the pr e v i ous edition, is n ow a Con s u l t ant Editor. Amo n g st the largely Cantabrian t e am of Editors Professor A . I. Og us and Mr. J .W. A. T h o m e l y have replaced Mr. J.A. Jolowicz. T h e law is stated as at Augu st 1, 1981. S i n ce 1981 Irish lawyers have b e en fortunate to have to hand M c M a h o n & B i n c hy 's "Irish Law of To r t s" wh i ch has considerably lessened the d e p e n d e n ce o n overseas (in the main English) mo n o g r a phs on t he subject. Howe v e r, Clerk & Lindsell pr ov i des a c onv e n i e nt c omp a n i on v o l ume in the Irish law library; several chapters (e.g. the final three on intellectual property) are of a specialist nature wh i le the d e p th of treatment t hr oughout places t he v o l ume in the category of a reference work. ( I nd e e d, this writer freely c on f e s s es that, a l t hough a r e v i ew c o py has b e en available to h im for s ome mo n t hs and is n ow considerably annotated, not every page has b e en read). Clerk & L i nd s e ll provides a very full, accurate and lucid statement of English law i n c o r p o r a t i ng n ot u n g e n e r o us r e f e r e n c es to C ommo nw e a l th and Irish law. M c M a h on & B i n c hy e x p o u nd not on ly an e xhau s t i ve treatment of Irish law but s u p p l eme nt it w i th a liberal comparative treatment of tort law in other C o mm on L aw jurisdictions, especially in No r th America, on a scale that is not a t t emp t ed in Clerk & Lindsell. N o r do es the latter rival the successive editions of S a lmo nd & He u s t o n, under the d i s t i ngu i s hed editorship of Professor He u s t o n, in its generosity of reference to Irish law, b o th statutory and judicial. In particular, the n ew ed i t i on of Clerk & Lindsell mi ght have c on s i d e r ed s ome recent Irish d e v e l o pme n ts wo r t hy of no te in the wi der C o mm on L aw world, e.g. Connolly v South of Ireland Asphalt Co. Ltd., [1977] IR 99, S . Ct .,ConolevRedbank Oyster Co. Ltd. [1976] IR 191 S . Ct ., Cotter v Ahem unreported , Finlay P, 1977 or Garvey v Ireland [1981] IR 75, S . Ct (as to e x emp l a ry damages). Re f e r e n ce c ou ld also have b e en made to Siney v Dublin Corporation [1980] I R 4 0 0 , S .Ct. wh i ch mi ght have b e en c omp a r ed wi th the very important but difficult, de c i s i on of the Ho u se of Lo rds in Anns v Merton LBC [1977] 2 All ER 492. In s ome instances, h owe v e r, the inadequacies of Irish law reporting do not help. Howe v e r, it wo u ld be churlish and insular not to recognise the a c h i e v eme nt of the present edition. Fu ll treatment has b e en accorded not merely to the

plethora of judicial decisions since the last edition but also to statutes ena c t ed in that period s ome of wh i ch are difficult e.g. the Fatal Ac c i den ts Act 1976, the To r ts ( I n t e r f e r e n ce wi th Go o d s) Act, 1977, the Un f a ir Contract T e rms Act, 1977, the Civil Liability ( C o n t r i b u t i o n) A c t , 1 9 7 8, t he L i m i t a t i on ( Ame n dme n t) Act, 1980, and a considerable body of labour legislation. T h e principal features of the t e x t u al r e o r g a n i s a t i on m e n t i o n ed a b o ve take c ogn i z ance of the bu r g e on i ng topic of Ne g l i g e n c e, n ow e x p a nd ed into t wo chapters; Causation and Remo t e n e s s, formerly dealt w i th under Dama g e s, are n ow s u b s umed neatly in the s e c ond Ne g l i g e n ce chapter. Th o se on t he kindred subjects of Oc cup i e rs Liability and Breach of Statutory D u t y f o l l ow immediately. T h e single mo st significent d e v e l o pme nt since the previous edition of Clerk & Lindsell was, howe v e r, the publication of the Repo rt of the Royal Comm i s s i on on Civil Liability and Comp e n s a t i on for Personal Injury under the Cha i rman s h ip of Lo rd Pearson. A l t hough there is considerable reference to Pearson in the text, s ome of the treatment is surprisingly uncritical, especially in the light of We s tmi n s t e r 's l ukewa rm reception of the Report. Chapter 15 and 16 of Clerk & Lindsell on E c o n om ic Torts, under the hand of Professor Lo rd We d d e r b u rn of Ch a r l t on ( f o rme r ly K . W. We dd e r bu r n) are, perhaps, t wo of the mo st attractive in the vo l ume. Ev en allowing for his readily discernible political v i ews, the author has an almost unrivalled clarity and didactic ability in hand l i ng a notoriously difficult subject matter. De s p i te the major statutory d i v e r g ence b e t we en Eng l and and Ireland since 1974, the chapters provide a mo st useful update to the learned author's invaluable mono g r aph, "The Wo rker and the Law", pub l i s hed in 1971 and n ow, alas, out of print, at least in paperback. In ke ep i ng wi th the publisher's tradition in its series, "The C o mm on Law Library", the present v o l ume is magn i f i c en t ly p r odu c ed w i th full tables and index. As a reference work, c omp l eme n t a ry to M c Ma h on & B i nchy in the terms described abov e, it wou ld prove a mo st useful addition to an Irish law library a l t hough the price is liable to deter at least the y oung er practitioner. Pa t r i ck J. C. McGo v e rn

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