F. B.A., Solicitor, Visiting Professor, University of Aberdeen. W. Green & Son Ltd., Edinburgh (1984, xxiii and 210 pp., plus 88 pp. Appendices and 8 pp. Index). Paperback £18.50.

When an Act is said to give complexity a new meaning and when the suggestion is made that it ought to come accompanied by a Government health warning, as happened when the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 was passing through Parliament, it stands to reason that it needs the expert to guide the uninitiated through the thickets. There are few who truly understand the legislation, which is based upon and incorporates the Brussels Convention of 1968. This in its turn derives from the inclusion in the EEC Treaty (Art. 220(4)) of a requirement that Member States should “enter into negotiations with each other with a view to securing for the benefit of their nationals … the simplification of formalities governing the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments of courts and tribunals and of arbitration awards”. The Act is one which must be understood by all who practise international commercial law.

Not surprisingly, there are a number of books written to assist the practitioner. Those in