This is a set of articles condensed from papers presented and discussions held at the Fordham Corporate Law Institute’s Annual Meeting in New York in November, 1977. There are 35 chapters and they are almost as varied as the contributors. These last were drawn widely from maritime commerce, Government, the legal profession and academic life, mainly in the United States, but also Canada, Japan, Sweden, France, the U.S.S.R. and the United Kingdom.

There were two main areas of discussion. The first was entitled “Regulation of the Shipowner’s Business Activities”. Papers and discussions covered the 1974 UNCTAD Code of Conduct for Liner Conferences, which was presented to the meeting by the Chief of the Maritime Legislation Section of UNCTAD, and the national maritime policies of the States represented by the speakers, together with some aspects of flags of convenience and international maritime labour law. The other was more diffuse. Entitled “International Control of Vessel Operations and Carriers’ Liabilities: Proposed Changes in Risk Allocation in the Maritime Industry”, it covered the 1976 London Convention on Limitation of Liability, the Hamburg Rules (then still in draft), oil pollution, particularly in relation to U.S. legislation and policy and, again, a heavily U.S. biased account of traffic separation schemes.

The task of preparing conference papers for publication must be one of the more difficult editorial jobs in the legal world. Contributors have so many different purposes and these differences may become embarrassingly marked when, as on this occasion, business, Government and academic mingle. However provocative and interesting the conference, in cold print wide variations cannot but jar. It is, therefore, a considerable achievement of Professor Joseph C. Sweeney, this volume’s editor, that these problems have, in the main, been avoided. There is, of course, some unevenness, but nothing sufficient to worry the reader. The dominant tone of the papers is practical, both as to present facts and future possibilities. The result is a useful handbook of law, practice and policy in a variety of countries on a variety of matters.

Informative handbooks, in an ideal world, would be up-dated regularly. The Hamburg Rules are with us. The 1976 IMCO Convention will, no doubt, wend its way further towards acceptance. A volume largely concerned with policies about shipping cannot fail, if it is topical, to be quickly out of date. But while it lasts, it is well worth having.