Kenneth S Gerber, COMMERCIAL LEASES IN SCOTLAND Edinburgh: W Green & Son (www.wgreen.co.uk), 2009. xxxv + 217 pp + companion CD. ISBN 9780414017528. £76.13.
| Author | Robert Rennie |
| DOI | 10.3366/E1364980909001164 |
| Published date | 01 January 2010 |
| Pages | 170-171 |
| Date | 01 January 2010 |
This is a very interesting book both in relation to its content and in relation to its structure. It is made clear both in the foreword and in the author's introduction that this book is aimed at a very wide audience not just at the legal profession. It is easy to read and will undoubtedly be of value to surveyors, commercial estate agents, land agents and indeed landlords themselves, being free for the most part of legal jargon and phraseology. It also boasts a comprehensive glossary of legal terms. It comes with a CD containing styles of offers to let and drafts. The styles indicate how an original draft might be revised on behalf of the tenant and then counter-revised on behalf of the landlord. There are also references to English law relating to commercial leases where appropriate.
So far as the law of leases itself is concerned the author has adopted a very clear approach and that is to state a legal principle in as simple terms as possible and then to illustrate the operation of that principle by reference to the facts of, and decisions in, selected cases. At first glance this may seem unusual in a legal textbook where the norm is to cite a number of cases as authority for a general principle and then cases illustrating the exceptions to that principle. While it is easy to see the benefits of this approach, especially for the wide readership at which the book is directed, there is always the risk of making the law simpler than it actually is. In chapter 1, for example, the author attempts to make a distinction between licences and leases. I have always understood that such a distinction is difficult to draw in Scots law, but here I was left with the impression that the distinction was clearer than it probably is. One might also have expected to see some reference to the leading case of
The author comes into his own when dealing with the...
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