Sweet & Maxwell Ltd. are in the process of publishing a series of 12 small books intended as brief guides to those areas of law most likely to be encountered in business. To date, six titles have been published, namely; “Law and the Legal System”; “Company Finance, Takeovers and Mergers”; “Insurance”; “Company Insolvency”; “Leases of Business Premises” and “Consumer Credit”. Two of these titles are reviewed in this edition, and the remainder will be reviewed in the February issue. Each of the books published to date are approximately 40,000 words in length and cost £1.25.

The remainder of the series, to be published early next year, will contain the following titles:— “Agency in Commerce”; “International Trade”; “The Family Business”; “Defective Goods”; “Arbitration” and “Company Structure”. They will be reviewed shortly after publication.

The above title is the lynch pin of the Essential Business Law series in that it attempts to convey the minimum level of understanding of the Legal System necessary for profitable study of the other titles in the series by businessmen. In attempting such an objective, selection of material is obviously crucial, and undoubtedly the inclusion of a substantial section on civil procedure, remedies and the enforcement of judgments is apposite. The fundamental principles, on which it is expected the busy reader may want to spend the minimum of time in preparing himself for the rest of the series, are adequately conveyed in the first four chapters, and the only section which the reviewer feels could be significantly culled is at p. 6, where the rules on courts consulting parliamentary papers in interpreting statutes appear perhaps a little too academic for this volume. Also, Chapter 5 seems to dwell on legal aid and some alternatives to the courts which are unlikely to be of use to the businessman as opposed to his prospective opponents in litigation.