The Gazette 1992

GAZETTE

JULY/AUGUST 1992

emotionally charged debate on abortion throws up varying

Irish Law of Torts have been reported either in the Irish Reports or in the Irish Law Reports Monthly. If the learned authors have helped to encourage that development, they deserve an additional vote of thanks.

related rules of law, a list of the important cases and/or statutes and a progress test enabling students to evaluate the level of knowledge that has been assimilated. The section entitled "An introduction to the study of law", provides an informative insight into how the law has developed to its present day state. It provides the reader with the basic insight into how the law works and by virtue of the author's interesting treatment of the topic, encourages the reader to approach the different sections of law covered in the book. Each aspect of the law discussed is dealt with in a satisfactory manner. Over half the book is devoted to discussion of the law of contract and commercial law and the exposition of these topics is, therefore, more thorough. Relevant case law is provided throughout the book and a brief summary of the facts is given along with the decision of the court. The reader loses nothing by not having a full detail of the facts of each case and, in fact, this layout may help students by providing them with necessary, rather than superfluous, information. A slight drawback with this book is the brief treatment given to company law. Most of the important aspects of company law are mentioned, but without ever attempting to investigate any aspect in depth. However this book is aimed at providing an introduction to business law and there are many fine texts available elsewhere on company law that would enable the student to ascertain all he/she wishes to know on this subject. This book provides a good introduction to business law for the non-legal student. Furthermore, from the diverse aspects of law that are covered it could also be a good starting point for those who are considering law as a career and have not studied law at a third level institution.

interpretations of what the Supreme Court did or did not decide in the X case.

Michael V.

O'Mahony

Michael V.

O'Mahony

A Casebook on the Irish Law of Torts (second edition), by Brian McMahon and William Binchy; (Butterworth Ireland Limited. 761pp, £36.00 paperback). The productivity of Messrs. McMahon and Binchy continues unabated. Having in effect consolidated the 'corpus' of the Irish Law of Torts in their textbook first published in 1981, they quickly followed with the first edition of their casebook in 1983. Then came the second edition of the textbook in 1989 and now in 1992 comes the second edition of the casebook (as at 1 August, 1991). The second edition of the casebook is conveniently 'dovetailed' into the chapter lay-out of the textbook, making it very useful for students and practitioners alike. The "Notes and Questions" which follow each judgment more realistically bring home the obvious - that the sources of the principles of the law of torts are to be found in decided cases. The American law student, who learns his law through the 'Socratic' case method, comes face to face with that reality on day one, but the Irish law student now has for torts, thanks to McMahon and Binchy, the advantage of having the synthesis of both the deductive textbook and the original source casebook. When McMahon and Binchy published the first edition of their textbook in 1981, a substantial benefit of it was their identification resurrected from the archives of the Four Courts, which otherwise would have been forgotten and functionally useless. A perusal of the second edition of the casebook shows that during the last decade all or virtually all of the developmental cases in the of a large number of relevant unreported written judgments

Essentials of Irish Business Law by Niall Sheeran, B. Comm, (Gill and MacMillan, 294pp, £8.99 paperback).

To be is to do - Sartre, to do is to be - Rousseau, do be do be do - Sinatra.

Strangers in the night, is an apt description of a layman's first encounter with the law.

This book is aimed primarily at students taking an introductory law course. The author, Niall Sheeran, B. Comm., teaches Irish Law at Senior College, Dun Laoghaire and would be more equipped than most to understand the difficulty that students may encounter when trying to come to grips, for the first time, with the vast body of law that exists in Ireland today. This book contains thirty-two chapters in all and is split into seven sections covering an introduction to the study of law, elements of the law of tort, the law of contract, commercial law, European law, employment law and the law of persons. The purpose of this book is to give an exposition of the principles of Irish business law and is designed to give students of commerce or business studies sufficient legal knowledge and analytical skills to enable them to cope with and make decisions regarding the routine legal problems which they will encounter in their future employment. The material is presented in a clear and concise manner which is readily understandable. Each chapter contains a list of the topics to be covered, a summary of the purpose of the chapter, a presentation of the

Ronan

Baird

229