Two of the principal banes of academic life these days, apart from colleagues and the Government, are conferences and Festschriften, both of which normally pressurize contributors with nothing particular to say into writing pieces which then go irretrievably into the limbo of a volume coherent only through thread and glue. If Festschriften are a bouquet, conference papers often make only a bookette.

In this nicely produced bookette the 10 pieces were delivered at a conference in Cambridge in 1996. They deal with various aspects of the rules which fall to be applied when something goes wrong with the performance of a contractual obligation, and each is followed by a comment. This possibility of immediate riposte is a useful feature of conferences, which tend to be fashionable as regards subject-matter (so as to attract financial support) and international in personnel (so as to justify travel grants). Both characteristics are here present.

As to fashion, it comes as no surprise that “restitution” figures in five of the 10 titles and “enrichment” in yet another. One wonders whether contract—perhaps soon to be redenominated