ARNOULD: LAW OF MARINE INSURANCE AND AVERAGE. Eds Jonathan Gilman, Robert Merkin, Claire Blanchard and Mark Templeman London: Sweet and Maxwell (www.sweetandmaxwell.co.uk), 2013. cxlviii + 1972 pp. ISBN 9780414024281. £375.

Published date01 January 2014
DOI10.3366/elr.2014.0198
AuthorJ Fitchen
Pages166-168
Date01 January 2014
<p><italic>Arnould</italic> is the pre-eminent and longest lived English language title on Marine Insurance and Average. It is also quite simply a superb book to use and to read: packed with information, explanation and informed speculation about the legal aspects of Marine Insurance and Average. The first edition of <italic>Arnould</italic> appeared in 1848: six subsequent editions appeared during the nineteenth century; the second (of 1857) being the last authored by Sir Joseph Arnould. The twentieth century saw ten further editions at various intervals until 1981. At this point a substantial interval ensued during which publication was postponed while various aspects of the practice of marine insurance underwent change leading to the introduction of new forms and policies. Despite the publication of a supplementary third volume of <italic>Arnould</italic> in 1997, to augment the two volumes by which the title was then encompassed, it was not until 2008 that the seventeenth edition appeared. The seventeenth edition was more obviously revolutionary in appearance than in content given that it was presented in one thick volume printed on thin ‘Bible paper’, a trend which the present edition continues. This comment should not be understood to suggest that there was no substantial internal reformation of the text: profound reformation was indeed present.</p> <p>The secret of the enduring relevance of <italic>Arnould</italic> lies in the skill with which it has retained coverage of that which remains relevant from former editions while updating and re-working the remaining text to take into account developments within the subject. This simple description of the process of updating a legal classic belies both the difficulty and the complexity of the task so successfully undertaken by the current authors of <italic>Arnould</italic> (all of whom were associated with the seventeenth edition of this work). The many adaptations to the text offered by the authors of the present edition of <italic>Arnould</italic> successfully accommodate the shifting nature of insurance law, insurance forms, clauses and policies in the early part of the twenty-first century. The authors include Professor Merkin, who also acts as an advisor to the English Law Commission on the project to reform Insurance Contract Law, which may explain an occasional wry comment concerning the pace at which the present legislative programme of insurance law reform, noted in the seventeenth edition, might be said to be proceeding as the eighteenth edition went to press. <italic>Arnould</italic> has, of course, already seen...</p>

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