This work on international dispute settlement is now in its second edition. Not only has it changed publisher since the first edition but it has also been substantially expanded. The first edition was a very useful but somewhat compressed guide to the area; the second edition has allowed the author a good deal more space in which to expand upon matters dealt with in the first edition and to introduce further material in some areas. As a consequence, it has become a far more substantial work than before.

The order of the material will be familiar to those who knew the first edition. The author begins with the so-called “diplomatic” methods of dispute settlement between states, negotiation, mediation, inquiry and conciliation, where the states involved retain control over the outcome of the dispute even where a third party has become involved in trying to settle it. By contrast, the “legal” means of settlement, arbitration and judicial settlement imply a commitment on the part of the states involved to accept as binding the decision of the third party or body to which the dispute has been referred. These matters are dealt with in Chapters 5, 6 and 7, which have been updated to include recent developments in arbitration, e.g., the Rainbow Warrior arbitration by the Secretary General of the United Nations and recent case-law of the International Court of Justice. Such new case-law includes landmark decisions such as the Nicaragua case of 1986 and a number of decisions on maritime boundary disputes. Commercial lawyers may note with interest that, even in a book dealing with disputes between states, private international arbitration is considered, albeit briefly. As Merrills notes, the traditional distinction between public and private arbitration becomes less distinct in relation to disputes between a private party and a state, and law and practice have had to adapt flexibly to changed conditions. The material on the World Court has been greatly expanded since the first edition and includes discussion on new developments in the court’s procedures, such as the greater use of chambers in recent years.

While, on the whole, this work deals with methods of dispute settlement of general application, a more specific area, which should be of particular interest to maritime lawyers, is dealt with in Chapter 8, where the author focuses on the Law of the Sea Convention and its provisions on dispute settlement. Obviously, no comment could be made on practice here with the Convention still to come into force but it is nonetheless a very useful case study of the issues and problems which arise in any attempt to create machinery for dispute settlement in a highly contentious area.

The book then returns to approaches of more general application with an examination of