Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
BOOK REVIEW - INTERNATIONAL MARITIME LAW CONVENTIONS
(BRITISH SHIPPING LAWS series)
By The Maharaj Nagendra Singh.
Published by Stevens & Sons, London (1983, 4 Vols., xxix and 3302 pp., plus 60 pp. Index).
Hardback £240.
The second edition of Judge Singh’s International Conventions of Merchant Shipping was published in one volume of 1662 pages of text and 34 pages of index in 1973. Ten years later, reflecting the fact that, in the meantime, some 30 new international conventions have been adopted in the field of maritime law, it has been necessary to expand this treaty collection to four volumes totalling no less than 3302 pages of text and 60 pages of index (repeated in each of the four volumes and thus filling 240 pages altogether).
The four volumes are entitled: Volume 1—Navigation; Volume 2—Safety; Volume 3—Training, Employment and Welfare and Environment; Volume 4—Maritime Law. However, a better indication of the coverage of the materials is given by its division into “Parts”, some of which extend beyond the confines of one volume. Thus, Part One is concerned with “Safety” and includes three sections dealing respectively with Navigation (Volume 1), Safety (Volume 2) and Training of Seafarers (first part of Volume 3). Part Two, covering Employment, Welfare and Status of Seamen, and Part Three, on the Environment, are also to be found in Volume 3. The final Volume includes Part Four, dealing with Law of the Sea, Landlocked States, Ports, Canals and Straits, and Part Five, which covers Private Maritime Law, Miscellaneous Conventions and International Organizations.
Within this broad framework, related conventions are collected together under further subdivisions. For example, the Navigation section in Part One arranges conventions under four heads: Collision Prevention; Navigational Aids; Maritime Communications; and Telecommunications. Each of the four is introduced by an “Author’s Note” which briefly sketches in the historical background to the Treaties in question. The same format is used throughout the four volumes.
Although, at first sight, £240 may seem to be a high price to pay for a collection of treaties, many of which are available in the second edition of this work and/or in more handy editions elsewhere (the new UN Convention on the Law of the Sea,
1982, for example, is published by the UN as a 224-page book), in fact this collection is a good buy. For lawyers and others whose business is with the seas, it is most useful to have such a comprehensive set of materials collected in one work of reference. Moreover, given the size of the collection, its excellent index and the customary high level of production by Stevens and their printers, it is very good value.
One suggestion for the next edition may be in order. Is it necessary to repeat two Forewords, three Prefaces and the Index in all four volumes? The space might be better used for a tabular presentation of the status of all the conventions included
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