THE LAW OF MARINE INSURANCE. Howard Bennett, Lecturer in Law, University of Nottingham. Clarendon Press, Oxford (1996) Ixxiv and 438 pp., plus 97 pp. Appendices and 10 pp. Index. Paperback £30.

LAW OF MARINE INSURANCE. Susan Hodges, Lecturer in Maritime Studies and International Transport, University of Wales, Cardiff. Cavendish, London (1996) xlvii and 469 pp., plus 162 pp. Appendices and 14 pp. Index. Paperback £39.95.

The multi-layered sources of the law of marine insurance contracts make it a particularly difficult subject to master. The English law of marine insurance is certainly no exception. Central is the codifying Marine Insurance Act of 1906, but no less important are the judicial decisions interpreting it, the customs and practices of the marine market (today mainly in the form of standardized clauses) deviating from the basic position laid down by the largely permissive code, and the common law and law merchant upon which the Act was predicated in the first place and upon which it and the law of marine insurance generally remain based. These sources must all be taken account of and skilfully blended in any exposition of the law of marine insurance.

The English law of marine insurance has been well served by some excellent texts over the years. However, most of them have become rather outdated, or are too extensively detailed to be used as introductory texts for students, legal practitioners and others who encounter this branch of the law for the first time. The two works by Hodges and Bennett seek to fill this gap and, it must be stated at the outset, generally succeed admirably in doing so. In fact, those more familiar with marine insurance will find both to be more than useful works of reference and will in both come across novel and innovative expositions of the principles involved. Both works are much more than just the student texts they were intended to be.

Both authors cover familiar territory, although not always in the same order or in the same depth. Thus, Hodges discusses the requirement of an insurable interest in a separate chapter, while Bennett considers it in a general introductory chapter in connection with the role of illegality and public policy; Hodges treats subrogation and double insurance and contribution in an introductory chapter on the marine insurance contract as one of indemnity, while Bennett gives the two topics more detailed consideration in two separate concluding chapters. Hodges has separate chapters on the subject-matter insured, valued and unvalued policies, and warranties, while Bennett does not elevate these topics to the same extent. He, in turn, devotes specific attention to matters such as the formation of marine insurance contracts, marine insurance brokers, and the cover provided by mutual insurance associations.

Both authors also follow the same approach in setting out the relevant principles. The provisions of the Marine Insurance Act are, where relevant, quoted and commented on and the relevant Institute Clauses by which the parties either alter the basis position or add to it are noted and explained where appropriate. In this way the novice reader is constantly made aware of the fact that the Act itself tells but a part of the story and that in practice the law of marine insurance is often radically different from that suggested by its main formal source. Not surprisingly both authors concentrate heavily on case law and make copious reference to and extensively discuss the large body of judicial decisions