This book is published in response to increasing developments in trade and the consequent need for more extensive literature on maritime law in South Africa. It could so easily have been, but is by no means, a narrowly written work with limited local appeal. The relative dearth of South African authority and the predominance of Anglo-American law have happily encouraged the author’s comparative and internationalist outlook. As a result, she has produced a book which is both a useful introduction to South African maritime law and a valuable comparison of English, American and South African responses to a number of problems regularly occurring in practice. This is, therefore, clearly no mere superficial introduction to the subject. But no more is it a massive work written for practitioners in the traditional style, comprising a mass of detailed authority and a lengthy exposition of the law as it is currently understood to be. It does, however, provide exactly what most good law books should provide: an account of the law which is both authoritative and well reasoned. The author achieves this by an approach which is a fine blend of both the practical and the analytical.

She has consciously attempted to ascertain the details of modern practice and the methods and expectations of commercial men, to discover the applicable legal rules, and to analyse the relevance of those rules to modern conditions. (See, in particular, her treatment of the notion of the “arrived ship”: pp. 160–165.) She includes, without undue emphasis, brief historical outlines then an exhaustive, critical discussion of the cases and the (thoroughly researched) academic literature, before presenting her conclusions. Her analysis is of no limited practical utility, for she provides above all a means of understanding the legal treatment of issues, which will prove invaluable to anyone concerned with the subject-matter of the text. In particular, she seeks, while castigating unrealistic distinctions between practitioners and theoreticians (see p. 240, fn. 56), to make clear how even the most theoretical analysis (e.g. of the juridical basis of general average contribution: see p. 122) can be vital for the determination of