BOOK REVIEW TRANSNATIONAL COMMERCIAL LAW International Instruments and Commentary 2nd Edition By Roy Goode, Herbert Kronke, Ewan McKendrick, and Jeffrey Wool ISBN: 978 0 19 958286 0 www.oup.com FOR PRACTITIONERS IN GLOBAL BUSINESS: A WELCOME 2nd EDITION OF 'TRANSNATIONAL COMMERCIAL LAW'. An appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers Business is now global and so too, obviously, is commercial law, which, like the world of business itself, changes continuously. Commercial lawyers virtually everywhere will welcome this new second edition of 'Transnational Commercial Law' recently published by the Oxford University Press. The new edition incorporates and closely examines the numerous and diverse developments in transactional commercial law that have taken place since the publication of the first edition seven years ago. The work as a whole has undergone comprehensive revision to include numerous new international instruments and additional ratifications of existing conventions, so there is much new material. For example, in Chapter 2 the third edition of the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts published in 2011 replaces the second edition. In Chapter 3, the 2005 UN Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Trade has been added. There's an overview of the convention on carriage of goods by sea, road and air in a new Chapter 5... and in Chapter 6, the new codified version of the First Company Directive which deals with agency and distribution, now appears. We could go on, but suffice to say that the list of incorporated new material is formidably lengthy; all the more reason why, if you are professionally involved in commercial law you need the expertise, the scholarship and above all, the authority provided by this book. The structure is logical. For example, introductory text is provided at the beginning of each of the thirteen chapters which cover an incredibly wide range of subject matter, including the various relevant aspects of contract law, from international sales and carriage of goods to agency and distribution... international credit transfers and bank payment undertakings... cross-border insolvency... conflict of laws... international civil procedure and of course, much more. Of particular relevance to just about everyone involved in international trading is the chapter which covers electronic commerce with its 'efficient alternatives to paper-based contracting' as the authors have put it. It seems that, predictably and understandably, the law carries on struggling to keep up with the relentless advance of internet technologies and facilities such as social networking. As the authors trenchantly admit, 'electronic commerce exposes the incompleteness of legal rules applicable with the geographic limits to which technology is impervious.' For practitioners with internet shopping clients, the introductory text here makes for enlightening reading, together with the list of key instruments (UNCITRAL 1996 and 2011), two EC directives and all four chapters on the United Nations Convention on the Use of Electronic Communications in International Contracts. In our view, this latest edition of this authoritative work, with its wealth of new material and detailed content, is an essential requirement for practitioners within this area of law, as well as those undertaking research. Extensive research resources abound, including copious and detailed footnoting, a lengthy index and extensive tables of cases and of statutes. The publication date is cited as at January 2012.

• published: 15 Jul 2012
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