This classic text on the law of agency, now in its twenty-first edition, is well established as the leading text on the subject in the common law. One might wonder what a reviewer can contribute, given that users of the book are already well aware of what it offers. After all, the preface helpfully guides the reader, chapter by chapter, through recent developments covered in the new edition. This review may differ slightly from others because the perspective comes from outside the legal system of England and Wales (the reviewer’s expertise lies in Scots law). Reading about new developments in English law, the question that arises is whether Scots law ought to follow the development. Answering that question may involve consideration of the consistency of the development with the underlying structure of Scots law, and also whether the development protects the interests of principal, agent and third party. Other users of the book from, for example, Canada, Australia or Singapore, may read and use this book in a similar way to the reviewer.

The authors of this book are clearly interested in agency law from a comparative perspective. The text and the footnotes contain a wealth of comparative material. Comparisons between English law and the US Restatement (Third) Agency are particularly useful. It will have been no easy feat to produce a book which fulfils the dual aims of covering modern English law and placing it within its comparative context. The authors occasionally use the facts of classic Scottish cases, where those facts help to illustrate the legal issues being discussed.1

Many examples could be used to illustrate the process referred to above, namely, using English precedents in a different legal system. One is the development of equitable restitution and compensation, discussed in Chapter 6, where the focus lies on the agent’s fiduciary and other equitable duties.2 Scots law, having no historic division between common law and equity, has no body of “equitable” remedies. Where an agent has