By comparison with its predecessor, the second edition of EC Banking Law is a book of impressive volume; the content is equally impressive, both in breadth and in detailed analysis. As the introduction emphasizes, the increase in size over that of the first edition is more than justified by the pace of change in banking law in Europe, partly caused by new technology (and its speedy obsolescence) and partly by the enormous quantity of banking legislation enacted during the last 30 years, which have together resulted in a revolution in banking law and services.

The book starts, as it should, with a discussion of the Treaty provisions dealing with freedom of establishment and freedom of services (EC Arts 52-58; 59-66) which underpin the numerous Directives on banking, the principal ones of which are considered in the successive chapters. The discussion includes an illuminating general discussion of the relevant European case law, which is helpful, as is the whole book, in bringing the subject closer to lawyers who are trying to improve their knowledge of the unfamiliar techniques and concepts of European law. The authors have taken care to put the black letter law, of which there is necessarily a massive amount, into the context of general discussions of its history and development—for example, of attitudes to harmonization—which add general interest. The volume of black letter law and the care taken to put it into context is undoubtedly one of the strengths of the book. Indeed, discussion throughout the book is thoughtful, and the text rarely becomes difficult to understand; even consideration of such technical matters as the Directives on own funds and capital adequacy is relatively accessible. Complex topics such as the risk weighting of swaps are also dealt with lucidly, despite the fact that the level of comment does not make too many concessions to inexpert readers; if there are difficulties in readily grasping the detail, the fault is the complexity of the subject matter, not that of the writers.

A considerable proportion of the book is devoted to competition law and policy and its impact on banking operations, again with a detailed discussion of the European case law; another section deals with consumer protection in the field of financial services, and another with the difficult area of reciprocity with non-Member States.

One of the virtues of the book is that it does rather more than give an account of existing law; the authors discuss some aspects of particular interest in a practical way—for example, in the chapter on consolidated supervision (which is recent enough to take account of post-BCCI developments), the responsibilities for consolidated supervision under the Directives are analysed helpfully in the context of those of the Basle standards; similarly in Chapter 8, there is assessment of the responsibilities of the host State for supervision under the Directives compared with its powers of supervision under Basle standards. The book includes a large and interesting section on banking secrecy which makes very clear the rapidly growing need (demonstrated vividly by BCCI) for improved international—indeed, global—communication. A thought-provoking analysis of the Money Laundering Directive (which was given statutory force in the United Kingdom some years ago) indicates the inconsistencies and contradictions between that Directive and the Second Banking Directive; for example, the discretion for Member States to legislate on areas of criminal activity other than drug money laundering, of which the UK has availed itself, may cause significant (indeed, possibly “insuperable”) clashes and problems.

The work is well organized and helpfully headed; subjects are discussed in manageable sections which allow easy reference. A tiny point is that the clarity of some of the headings is achieved rather at the expense of brevity: one heading, for instance, consists of 35 words, which gives an impression