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BOOK REVIEWS
Compensation
for Road Accidents,
ALEXANDER
SZAKATS, pp. 173. Sweet & Maxwell, 1968,
30/-.
This
is a very useful study on the position of
absolute liability and social insurance, following
Mr. Terence G. Ison's interesting
The Forensic
Lottery
(1967) which was described as a critique
on tort liability as a system of personal injury
compensation. In New Zealand, a committee on
Absolute Liability has presented its report as long
ago as 1963. Some of the opinions expressed by
the author may stir up considerable controversies
and arguments, but the time is ripe for discussion.
The author describes systematically first the com
mon
lav/ system based on proof of negligence,
followed by a brief comparative study of the pro
blem in foreign law countries, followed by a con
sideration of the Saskatchewan scheme. The last
chapter suggests an organised research project.
This most
readable book
is
strongly
recom
mended.
The Role of the Lawyer in the European Com
munities,
ANDRE M. DONNER, 8vo., pp. xvii,
91. Edinburgh University Press, 1968, 21/-.
This is the text of three lectures delivered by Judge
Donner, of the Court of Justice of the European
Community, at the North Western University,
Chicago, under the auspices of the Julius Rosen-
thal Foundation in 1966. In the first lecture on
"The Legal Nature of the European Communi
ties", Judge Donner shows the theory of "Supra-
nationality" as a middle way between Sovereignty
and International Organisations and between the
interpretation of the Treaty of Rome as an inter
national treaty or as internal constitutional law.
In the second lecture on "Community Law and
the Legal Tower of Babel", Judge Donner sym
pathises with his brethren who have to consider
such
concepts
as
"detournement de pouvoir"
(much wider in its German and Italian context)
and "faute de service" so specifically favoured in
French jurisprudence. There is no doubt but that
national traditional customs and conceptions must
be abandoned if Community Law is, under the
Treaty, to be uniformly interpreted and applied.
In the third lecture in "The Law as a Factor
of Integration", it is stressed that the European
Court has clearly indicated in specific judgments
that municipal law must give way to community
law in the national courts. In other words, the
narrow construction of the Supreme Court in the
Lawless case
(1957) will
inevitably have to bs
reversed as regards the application of futher in
ternational agreements arising under the Treaty of
Rome.
Uniform Laws on International Sales Act 1967,
PROFESSOR R. H. CRAVESON and PROFESSOR
E. J. GOHN, pp. xii, 195. Buttcrworths, 1968,
72/-.
The price of this slim volume indicates that it
deals with a very specialised subject. The Presi
dent of the High Court, Mr. Justice O'Keeffe,
represented Ireland when the Hague Conventions
on the Unification of Law Governing the Inter
national Sales of Goods and the Formation of
Contracts relating thereto were signed in 1964.
The British Government ratified the convention,
provided that each party to the contract has his
place ofbusiness, or, if none, by habitual residence
in the territory of a different contracting state,
and provided the parties concerned have chosen
the Uniform Law as the law of the contract. The
1967 Act was passed in Britain to implement the
Hague Convention, but it is not yet in force, as
the number of countries who have ratified the
convention is not yet sufficient. It is important
to note that the convention relating to a Uniform
Law on the International Sale of Goods contains
no less than 101 articles, and that it will become
increasingly important in the future. This annota
ted volume is invaluable for the detailed com
ments it gives on each of the intricate problems
that may arise.
Arabinesquc at Law,
HON. SIR ROBERT MEGARRY,
8vo., pp. xiv, 37. Wildy, 1969, 12/6.
Mr. Justice Megarry has written
in his own
delightful way about the sayings, wise and other
wise, of Sergeant Arabin, who was the third Judge
in the Old Bailey. William St. Julien Arabin, born
in 1775, was educated at Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge, and called to the Bar in 1801. In
1824 he became a Sergeant-at-Law, and Deputy
Judge-Advocate in the British Army. He was a
Commissioner of the Central Criminal Court from
1834 until 1841, when he died at 66 years of age.
Sergeant Arabin was an eccentric in his ideas as in
his logic, and he gave short shrift to prisoners
appearing before him. Why these ideas, first pub
lished in 1843 under the title
Arabiniana
should
ever have seen
the light of day
is difficult to
imagine but Mr. Justice Megarry
in his own
inimitable learned way has turned some dull say
ings into a sparkling narrative. The booklet
is
dedicated without permission to the redoubtable
Rayner Goddard, and the profits go to the English
Barrister's Benevolent Association.
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