Andrew Burrows’ Remedies for Torts and Breach of Contract fully deserves its reputation as the leading student work on judicial remedies for civil wrongs in English law, as well as an accessible text offering some robust guidance for practitioners. Its author surely ranks as our pre-eminent scholar of the law of remedies. As a former Law Commissioner, full-time academic, part-time barrister and part-time judge, he is also uniquely placed to write a text which caters for the needs of both law student and practitioner. Though later editions of popular and well-established texts can sometimes miss the attentions of reviewers, the third edition of Remedies must not. It deserves a loud fanfare.

The basic focus of the new edition of Remedies remains the same as earlier editions. It is a text on those judicial remedies which can loosely be described as remedies “for” breaches of contract and torts. Remedies therefore explores the aims, availability and quantification of damages for breaches of contract and torts (compensatory, restitutionary, punitive), as well as the nature and availability of the collection of what are commonly called “specific remedies” (eg, orders for specific performance, an action for the agreed sum, injunctions, orders for the delivery up of goods, orders for the possession of land). So-called “self-help” remedies are not considered.

All of the long-standing strengths of Remedies , in dealing with that subject-matter, remain. First, Burrows’ exposition of the law is extremely clear and concise. He cuts deftly through the mass of primary and secondary material, presenting the law in a manner which enables a reader to appreciate fully its structure, and so locate the key themes and issues. Secondly, Remedies is consistently stimulating because of its strong critical perspective. Burrows is never content to state the law without articulating its underlying premises and, where appropriate, robustly questioning its current shape. No student reading Remedies could fail to appreciate the importance of the higher-level questions, “why should it be so?” and “why or how should it be otherwise?”. Thirdly, Remedies engages closely and expertly with the case law. Concrete real-world examples are vital to the book’s accessibility, but an exhaustive account of decided cases would seriously impede it. Burrows has a very fine sense of the appropriate balance between clear statements of principle, illustrative case references, and close(r) critical engagement with leading and/or particularly problematic decisions. Fourthly, Remedies is distinguished by Burrows’ readiness to engage, directly and critically, with the developing secondary literature in all areas.

What, then, are the major developments that mark out the third edition from previous editions? The first and most immediately obvious change is to its general structure. Burrows’ starting-point continues to be functional or goal-based. Remedies are categorized according to their underlying function or goal, which Burrows continues to identify as compensation, restitution, punishment, compelling performance, preventing the commission of a wrong, undoing the commission of a wrong, and declaring rights. What is distinctive about the new edition is that the book’s subject-matter has been systematically re-organized into major Parts that directly correspond to each of

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