319 / 336
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.
Hepple (B
.A.)
and M. H. Matthews—Tort: Cases and
Material:-.
London : Butterworth, 1974; £6.00 Paper-
back; xxix, 747p.
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
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.
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-