The preparation of the 11th edition of this established student work has necessitated significant revision of the text. The Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1924 has now been replaced by the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1971, the United Nations Convention on the Carriage of Goods by Sea 1978 has brought into existence a set of rules (the Hamburg Rules) designed to replace those in the 1971 Act, over 100 new cases have been reported (all of which the present author has incorporated) and there have been several other developments (e.g., the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977) having at least some effect on the law of Carriage of Goods by Sea. At the last moment, the author was able to incorporate the Hovercraft (Civil Liability) Order 1979 into the final chapter on Carriage of Goods by Hovercraft. He has endeavoured to ensure that references to all recent developments are available in the book.

There are occasions when Professor Ivamy’s thoroughness may do him a disservice. The number of authorities cited is beginning appreciably to overtake any slight increase in page length of successive editions, so much so that the proportion of space devoted to footnotes is perhaps becoming excessive. There are a growing number of sub-texts which could be better integrated into the main text. This would require some harsh decisions on pruning the cases, many of which do not contain important issues of principle. The author has possibly been too ambitious in incorporating all the recent materials. Not infrequently the reader is referred to cases which merely exemplify particular points of law or where the decision on the facts of a case is indicated without attention being drawn to its general legal significance. At times, the task of compression has led to the statement of general points as if they were particular rules of law: e.g., that the evidence may show that shipowners have waived a claim against time charterers who redeliver in a damaged condition (this might be the case with any breach of contract). At other times the compression is more than misleading, as in the bald statement that consecutive voyage charter-parties are time charter-parties.

As to the prominence that should be devoted to particular authorities, this may, admittedly, often be a matter of personal taste. Certain cases are, however, perhaps not given sufficient attention, e.g. (of the recent cases) The Puerto Buitrago and The Aries. This is unfortunate in the case of older authorities, such as Universal Cargo