The Gazette 1991

GAZETTE

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1991

industry is a major sector of the Irish economy w i th " t o u r i sm earnings contributing up to 9% of GNP and over 70,000 people em- ployed full-time in the industry", according to CERT at p.228 of this book. The industry is an important target area for growth in the current Programme for National Recovery. It has not received much attention from academic lawyers or from law reformers. There is almost no legal literature on the industry. Industry activities straddle many of the traditional demarcation lines of academic and professional lawyers. Legal concepts dominate the lawyer's way of seeing legal issues. The standard response of most lawyers when conversing with someone who claims an interest in hospitality law is - what's that? It is a bit of contract? a bit of tort? and maybe sale of goods? That sort of thing? Hospitality law is not a university law subject. Hospitality law is applied law which focuses on industry specific issues. The specific case and specific legislation is the meat of this subject. The leading and the not-so-leading case from the non- industry context is not of great value in such a subject. Dworkin's principle of integrity in law is a vital component of applied law. Francis Dempsey's handbook is the first work on hotel and catering law in Ireland, and it is to be welcomed as the first attempt to bring together in a single work the variety of legal rules which affect the industry. The text runs to 191 pages. It is a handbook not a textbook. Its style is descriptive and it avoids legal jargon. It is well laid out, and it will undoubtedly benefit certificate and, to a lesser extent, diploma level students. The book is also addressed to people who work in the industry. Whether it will achieve this aim remains to be seen. Given its length and approach, the treatment of the material is, of necessity, so general arjd descriptive that it might not satisfy the needs of people who are already familiar with the general ideas and who seek more detailed information. On the other hand, there is good reason to suspect that there is considerable ignorance within the industry of the legal rules which affect it. Leaving aside those who wish to remain in an undisturbed state of ignorance, this

Practice and Procedures; Prisons; Revenue Law; Safety and Health; Social Welfare; Solicitors; Statutory Interpretation; Telecommunica- tions; Torts and Transport. One is almost awed with the compre- hensive list of chapters. Each chapter is subdivided into sections and subsections. The reader of the Review is assisted by a comprehensive table of cases, constitutional provisions, statutes, statutory instruments, European Community laws, Council of Europe laws, non-statutory schemes, Irish Bills, United Kingdom legislation, United States Codes, and International Agree- ments and Conventions. There is also a most useful index. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, a Justice of the United States Supreme Court, was the speaker of the day on June 28, 1911 when the Harvard class of 1861 met for the fiftieth anniversary of its gradua- tion. Remembering his Civil War service in the Twen t i e th Massachusetts Volunteers and remembering his days as a law student, practising lawyer, law teacher, writer, and judge, he told his "brethren of the Alumni": " I learned in the regiment and in the class the conclusion, at least, of what I think the best service that we can do for our country and for ourselves: to see so far as one may and to feel the great forces that are behind every detail . . . to hammer out as compact and solid a piece of work as one can, to try and make it first rate, and to leave it unadvertised". Raymond Byrne and William Binchy have produced a compact and solid piece of work. The Review is first rate and should not be left unadvertised. The writer of this notice commends the Annual Review of Irish Law 1989 to all readers of the Gazette. EAMONN G. HALL REVIEW OF A HANDBOOK OF ESSENT I AL LAW FOR THE IRISH HOTEL AND CATERING INDUSTRY [By Francis J. Dempsey, Cert. Publications, 1990] The hotel, catering and tourism

ANNUAL REVIEW OF IRISH LAW 1989 [By Raymond Byrne and William Binchy, The Round Hall Press, Dublin. 1990. 1 + 467pp. IR£55 Hardback] Raymond Byrne and William Binchy have achieved another remarkable feat: the third volume in the Annual Review of Irish Law series has been published. Some of the most searching and influential ex- positions of various aspects of Irish Law are to be found within the pages of the Review. The Annual Review of Irish Law 1989 provides a survey of legal developments, judicial and statu- tory, that occurred during 1989. In relation to case law, the Review includes cases where judgments were delivered in 1989, even though they may not have been reported in 1989. For the benefit of those lawyers (and interested lay persons) who have not benefited f rom the previous editions, the writer of this notice draws your attention to the various chapter headings: Ad- ministrative Law; Agriculture; Commercial Law; Company Law; Conflict of Laws; Constitutional Law; Contract Law; Criminal Law; Defence Forces; Education; Electricity and Energy; Equitable Remedies; European Communities; Family Law; Fisheries; Garda Sfochana; Labour Law; Land Law; Law Reform; Licensing; Limitations of Actions; Local Government;

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