Insolvency: The Regular Payment of Debts. The Law Reform Commission of Australia. [Report No. 6, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra. 1977. 156 pp. No price given.]: Handbook on Bankruptcy and Deeds of Arrangement Law and Practice, being a third edition of Ivan Cruchley's Handbook on Bankruptcy Law and Practice. By Michael Crystal and Brinsley Nicholson. [London: Oyez Publishing. 1978. xli + 268 pp. £15·00.]
| Author | J. H. Farrar |
| Published date | 01 November 1979 |
| Date | 01 November 1979 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1979.tb01572.x |
734
’IIIE
MODERN
LAW
REVIEW
LVol.
42
significance to the question of the extent of discrimination against an individual
worker who claims the “right to dissociate
”;
this is the extent to which
a
legal right to dissociate discriminates against the effective functioning of the
institutions
of
collective labour relations. It would be neither possible nor
appropriate to attempt to explore these issues fully in the context of this book.
What this chapter does contain in its main section
is
an account
of
thc
law,
and, to some extent, practice
on
the right to dissociate in the six countries.
The structure adopted makes for ease of comparison on particular issues, but
the conclusion warns that simple direct comparisons are impossible. This is
both because of the complexity
of
the issues involved at the collective and
individual levels and also because the answer
to
the problem in each country
can only be explained in terms of
its
social history. in particular that
of
its
labour movement. The concise summary of the state
of
the trade union
movements in each country and certain aspects of collective labour law-
the right to organise, union independence and the check off-which precedes
the main section provides some points
of
reference which have to be pursued
in order to understand the different solutions adopted.
Apart from the intrinsic merit of each
of
these chapters standing alone, does
the book have an enhanced value in suggesting any unifying factors in the
different areas of discrimination in cmployment? The first and last chapters
by Thilo Ramm consider this question. The first provides a theoretical context
for the book. An attempt to identify the meaning
of
discrimination with some
precision includes drawing
a
distinction which
is
taken up in some of the
following chapters between
“
legal
”
discrimination by the State and “social”
discrimination by private individuals and groups. This is followed by a
descriptive history of ideas in which attitudes to discrimination and equality
are placed in the context of political and economic thought.
The
variations in
responso by an amalgam of State intervention and self-help to nineteenth-
century discrimination against workers, which was reinforced by the doctrine
of
freedom of contract, are explained in terms of different political necessities
and legal backgrounds. In the second part of the final chapter Ramm is
less
successful in trying to identify
a
theoretical basis on which discrimination and
anti-discrimination provisions in the laws of
the
six countnies can be explained.
The
‘‘
Remarks of Legal Theory
”
are rather disjointed with any connecting
theme difficult to discern. The first pact of this ohapter
is
an unrelated survey
of
international provisions relevant
to
discrimination in employment which
provides some useful references.
While the book as a whole is
a
valuable source
of
comparative material on
various aspects of discrimination in employment, the existence of any under-
lying concept
of
discrimination which unites the topics discussed in the
substantive chapters of the work remains unproved.
R.
C.
SIMPSON.
INSOLVENCY: THE REGULAR PAYMENT
OF
DEBTS.
THE
LAW REFORM
COMMISSION
OF
AUSTRALIA. [Report
No.
6,
Australian Govern-
ment Publishing Service, Canberra.
1977. 156
pp.
No
price
given.]
HANDBOOK
ON
BANKRUPTCY
AND
DEEDS
OF
ARRANGEMENT LAW
AND
PRACTICE, being
a
third edition
of
Ivan Cruchley’s Handbook on
Bankruptcy Law and Practice. By MICHAEL CRYSTAL and
BRINSLEY NICHOLSON. [London
:
Oyez Publishing.
1978.
xli
+
268
pp.
€1500.1
ECONOMIC
recession following hard upon economic growth has given rise to a
substantial increase in the number of bankruptcies. The increase has exposed
wcaknesscs in the law and administration
of
bankruptcy. Much of it is archaic,
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