Book review Intellectual Property and Private International Law (2nd edition, 2011)

ISBN: 978-0-19-955658-8
Publisher: Oxford University Press        
Price: £195.00

This is an excellent work and it is long overdue, as the authors admit in their preface to this 2nd edition.  The 1st edition was published in 1998 and  since then there have been huge changes in both private international law and the law of intellectual property.  

This is also an unusual work because it manages to combine a rigorous, practical statement of the law as it now stands with a valuable critique of that existing position and thoughtful and well-informed proposals for reform.

The book has the look and feel and gravitas of a standard practitioners’ text and provides coverage of all the main topics one would expect to see. It is divided into three sections: jurisdiction; applicable law; and recognition and enforcement of foreign judgements. Among other virtues, this allows for full treatment of the replacement of the Brussels Convention by the Brussels I Regulation; the Rome I Regulation and Rome II Regulation, which have replaced the Rome