REVIEWS
| Published date | 01 September 1972 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1972.tb02365.x |
| Date | 01 September 1972 |
REVIEWS
THE
LAW
OF
DEMURRAGE (being the second edition
of
the Law
of
Demurrage and the Claim
for
Demurrage).
By
HUGO TIBERG.
[London
:
Stevens
&
Sons.
1971.
lxxx and
676
pp.
(with index).
E10-75.1
A
NEW
edition. of
Dr.
Tiberg's .valuable book on demurrage is particularly
welcome, especially
as
it
incorporates,
as
is rather clumsily indicated in the
new title, the short but useful postscript which he brought out in
1962
on
certain relevant business aspects of the subject.
Both the earlier volumes have been noticed here, the main work
in
some
detail (see
M.L.R.
Vols.
25
(1962) 384,
and
26 (1963) 339)
so
that
it
is unneca-
sary to repeat what
is
there said about the interesting origins of this work, and
upon
its
scope and structure.
It
may be said
at
once, however, first that the
amalgamation,
I
might almost call it
a
fusion, of the two works has been
carried through with great skill, much more
so
than in some other cases one
could mention in which similar integrations of maritime law books have taken
place, and secondly that most of the weaknesses
to
which attention was there
drawn have been corrected, both in regard to the important matter of the
structure of the book, and in regard to the hardly less important matter
of the English. The volume has again been printed in Sweden but hardly any
of
the irritating mistakes which were then
so
evident are now apparent.
And Dr. Tiberg's
own
use of the English language has in the interval
grown
both more fluent and more accurate-I have on this occasion noticed little of
which
I
could complain, though he has
a
curious tendency to use the word
"
intercede
''
instead of
"
intervene."
I
will, however, permit myself some observations on this new edition, for
it is in
a
number of ways
a
new
book-and these without too much repetition
of what
I
have previously written.
It
can,
I
think, be said that Dr. Tiberg has established demurrage as
a
new
textbook subject,
at
any rate
in
so
far
as
common law jurisdictions are
concerned. As he says in his preface, "in
1960
it was
a
little noted subject
.
.
.
since then specialised monographs have appeared in several countries,"
particularly in Scandinavia where the author himself has clearly given
a
lead.
These ten years have thus worked
"
profound changes
''
in
the subject, as
must inevitably happen when scientific academic analysis is brought to bear
on any branch of the law.
It
would indeed appear from these pages
that
substantial movements in the actual working of the law have appeared in some
jurisdictions, though
so
far
as
this country is concerned
I
think that
Dr.
Tiberg
has overestimated the jurisdictional activity;
as
the reported cases which have
not been cxceptionally numerous would appear to indicate
:
though we have
certainly shared in the literary activity.
Quite apart
from
the structural and stylistic improvements already noted
Dr. Tiberg has obviously worked assiduously on the contents of the text, and
the result is
a
much improved work. Like other careful and dedicated authors
he has been finding imperfections in his first edition-" watching mine with
growing dissatisfaction
"
he says. The numerous improvements in the layout
of the material bear witness to the fact that this dissatisfaction has been
a
gadfly to the author. What with the new material, and the fuller analysis
of
some of the earlier decisions which this edition contains there are about
a
hundred additional pages in this edition, which is no doubt one factor in
the extremely stiff rise in the price (from
E6
for the two volumes in
1960-62
to
E10.76
in
1971).
558
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