111 / 346
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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