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GAZETTE
SEPTEMBER 1981
BOOK REVIEWS
Benjamin's Sale of Goods,
2nd Edition. General Editor,
A. C. Guest. Published by Sweet and Maxwell 1981,
cxl, 1401pp. £65.00 (sterling).
In a previous issue of the Gazette a short book on the Sale
of Goods was recommended for the "busy practitioner
who wants to keep up with developments in this area of
the law and who does not have a new Benjamin at his
elbow." In that extract, the reviewer rightly paid tribute to
the usefulness and authority of Benjamin's Sale of Goods,
the second edition of which has just been published. The
second edition, like the first, is the successor in title, so to
speak, to a volume first published in 1868 and then
entitled "Benjamin's Treatise on the Law of Sale of
Personal Property with References to the French Code
and Civil Law."
The new edition of course relates to U.K. Law (as at
1st June, 1980) but, for the Irish practitioner, its
publication is timely because of the enactment of the Sale
of Goods and Supply of Services Act, 1980. The present
edition therefore should be particularly useful in
considering the implications of the 1980 Act although, at
the risk of stating the obvious, it must always be
remembered that the Irish Act does not necessarily follow
its U.K. counterparts in every detail and, furthermore,
that an English authority can at best be persuasive rather
than binding in Irish courts.
That said, the volume under review contains much
useful material for considering the concept of "dealing as
consumer", the test of what is "fair and reasonable" in
relation to certain contractual terms, misrepresentation,
and the general terms implied by the 1980 Act in
contracts for the sale of goods. The volume is less useful
in considering the provisions of the 1980 Act in relation
to services (and perhaps hire-purchase), partly because
the Irish provisions on these subjects tend to differ from
their English counterparts.
The commercial lawyer will derive considerable
enlightenment, but perhaps little certainty, from the
extended treatment of retention of title clauses. The full
implications of such clauses will only become clearer over
time.
The same may be said of such a familiar concept as
"merchantable quality". It is no criticism of the learned
authors to say that their treatment of the subject reflects
the general uncertainty as to the precise meaning of the
concept, even following its definition by Statute. The Irish
Act of 1980 follows the English definition, but with the
important addition of the concept of durability. I believe
the Irish addition is useful, particularly for the consumer,
but it carries with it the difficulty that any breach of the
"condition" as to durability is something that, of its
nature, may often be discovered only after a considerable
period has elapsed following purchase.
The previous edition of Benjamin was published in
1974 and the editor sets out in the Preface an account of
the more significant developments since then which have
led to the new edition. These include the Sale of Goods
Act, 1979, the Consumer Credit Act, 1974, and the
Unfair Contract Terms Act, 1977, (all of course U.K.
Acts) as well as the relevant case law of recent years. (In
relation to overseas sales, in particular, the editor refers to
over a hundred cases, which have necessitated many
changes since the previous edition). Much of the volume
relates primarily to commercial transactions (as does
much of the case law on the sale of goods) but a chapter
on Consumer Protection has been extensively re-written
although the authors do not claim to provide anything
more than an introduction to this particular area.
As might be expected from a volume in the Common
Law Library series, the text, layout and annotations of
the present edition are excellent. With over 1,500 pages,
including index and table of cases, Benjamin's Sale of
Goods is not something to be purchased on impulse but
for the practitioner in this area of law, it would seem to be
indispensible.
James M. Murray
Principles of Irish Law,
Brian Doolan, (Gill &
Macmillan), 300 pp, 1981. Price: £7.24 (inc. VAT).
The publishers of this book make a number of claims
which caused this reviewer to approach his task with
some misgivings. It did not seem possible to produce a
small book of less than 300 pages of text which would fill
the perceived need for "a comprehensive statement of
Irish legal principles in clear and positive language". It is
true that the work is also described as an introduction to
the most important areas of Irish Law, so that the
intending reader is put on notice that it is merely an
introduction and that it does not purport to cover all
areas, even in an introductory fashion.
The areas selected are the Irish Legal System (in which
the author deals with the history of Irish Law and the
constitutional and legislative framework of the legal
system) and in the eight parts following, the major areas
of substantive law (Contract, Criminal Law, Torts,
Equity and Trusts, Land Law, Family Law arid
Succession, Commercial Law and Employment Law).
Few would dispute that these are the most important
areas, or, indeed, that they encompass practically the
whole of Irish Law.
An attempt to give a
comprehensive
statement of the
legal principles of all of these branches of Irish Law in less
than 300 pages would appear to be faredoomed to failure,
and this book indeed fails in this respect.
Mr. Doolan has not failed to achieve what one assumes
was his real objective. This book
is
a statement, in clear
and positive language, of many of the substantive rules of
Irish Law in various areas. It presents a simple and useful
account of the machinery of the legal system and the
major divisions of the substantive law. It is a model of
clarity — both language and organisation.
The publishers are also to be congratulated on the
attractive lay-out and general quality of the work. It is,
for example, rare nowadays to find any published work,
which is as relatively free of misprints as this is and, in
one of the few lapses, (O'Laigheis, p. 27), the error is at
least consistently maintained both in the text and in the
Table of Cases. The authorities cited throughout are not
supported by footnotes, but full citations are given in the
Tables of Cases and Statutes.
As the book is not intended for practitioners or more
advanced scholars, its lack of comprehensiveness and
discussion of controversial issues is understandable. It is
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