In the Preface to the first edition of Cheshire and Fifoot’s Law of Contract, which was written in 1945, the authors justified the offering of yet another textbook on contract law by the novelty of their intended approach to the subject. Not only did they aim to examine the principles underlying the English law of contract but to “indicate the difficulties surrounding their application and to illustrate these from the accidents of litigation and practices of life … and to justify their vagaries by reference to history”. The book, now in its 12th edition, edited by Professor Furmston, has always successfully relied on the skilful presentation of carefully selected cases in order to give it something of the character of an early case book. This use of illustrative case material which is at the heart of the text has made Cheshire & Fifoot popular with students and teachers of contract law. In this edition Professor Furmston has continued with this approach, providing detailed and interesting accounts of the most recent significant commercial cases in order to highlight problems arising in practice from the application of the rules. Recent examples include: British Steel Corp. v. Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Co. Ltd. [1984] 1 All E.R. 504; Kleinwort Benson Ltd. v. Malaysia Mining Corp. Bhd. [1989] 1 W.L.R. 379; Blackpool & Fylde Aero Club Ltd. v. Blackpool Borough Council [1990] 1 W.L.R. 1195; and Williams v. Roffey Bros. & Nicholls (Contractors) Ltd. [1991] 1 Q.B. 1.

The second purported aim of the original authors, which was to explain the vagaries of the rules by reference to their historical origins, is admirably achieved by the historical introduction now written by Professor B. Simpson. This chapter throws much light on problems encountered in complex areas such as consideration, estoppel and waiver, while many subsequent chapters, dealing with such areas as the unenforceability of contracts, restrictive trading agreements, mistake and misrepresentation, provide useful and interesting accounts of their unique historical developments. The chapter dealing with exclusion clauses provides a clear and comprehensive account of the historical development of the law in this area.

Since the earlier editions of Cheshire & Fifoot, much of the modern study of contract law has focused on the place of the law of contract in the general law of civil obligations; the interrelations between contract and tort; the influence of economic theory on the theory of contract law; the relationship between the principles and existing contractual procedures; and the extent to which commercial realities influence the development of the law. A second introductory chapter, promisingly entitled “Some Factors Affecting Modern Contract Law”, acknowledges the importance of such developments in contract theory: the Continental influence in the 19th century; inequality of bargaining power; contractual behaviour; the law of contract or contracts; and the inter-relationship between contract and tort. The reader may then be justifiably disappointed to find that these themes are not fully explored by the subsequent chapters.

Examples of this failure to consider recent developments in the light of issues raised in the introduction can be seen in the chapters on privity of contract and economic duress. In the Introduction, the author has acknowledged the significant role played by tort law in