Customer Rating:  
Summary: Commonly overrated
Comment: The other reviews quite rightly emphasise the strength of this book's content. Indeed, this books provides a comprehensive collection of primary/secondary sources and 'insightful' commentary, relative to other international law cases/materials books aimed at students. However, that last qualification is important. Relative to cases/materials books generally (ie across all areas of law), it is readily apparent that this book is significantly deficient in terms of structure, coherence, cross-referencing and the ratio of source:commentary.
Dixon & McCorquodale's source book is stronger in these latter respects, but lets itself down in terms of content and comprehensiveness.
Why must there always be compromise between content/structure? I do not feel that this properly can be attributed to either the nature of the subject (the inevitable 'argh, i can't possibly get all of this into book form' excuse) or pressure from publishers (the equally inevitable 'argh, the publishers wouldn't let me put it all in' excuse). International lawyers intent on writing cases/materials books should (to excuse a pun) take a leaf out of McKendrick's contract source book, Elliot's administrative law source book, Herring's criminal law source book, or Tony Weir's tort case book (the latter is also published by Sweet & Maxwell, and hence must suffer the shameful structure/format and miniaturised commentary typeface, but is a fantastic book nonetheless).
A final note: while I do not readily support any form of legal spoon-feeding, it would be reassuringly 'nicer', given the unfamiliar nature of international law to undergraduate students, to include a brief summary of the salient points arising from the major cases (after they have been set out in nigh-on full length), rather than to proceed on the assumption that all has been happily digested and understood. See, eg McKendrick's contract source book, for a good example of how to do this.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best choice for students, researchers and professors
Comment: My first contact with this superb book was during my preparation for the Telders International Law Moot Court Competition. It proved to be an irreplaceable tool. It contained all the necessary information that i needed and the structure of the book helped me find anything i wanted in a few seconds. I was so amazed by this book that i acctually bought a copy in order to allways have it by my side. One cannot easily find another book that containes so many information on international law, so many international and national cases, international treaties, theories and case studies. I consider "Cases and Materials" to be the best book in its category.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Public International Course Book
Comment: For more than a decade this book had been the leading 'cases and materials course book' in the field of public international for serious university courses. The book includes an excellent collection of primary materials and insightful commentary. The breath and depth of its coverage is unequalled by any other cases and materials course book on the market. The layout of the book and its index make it easy for students to follow a coherent tour through the major areas of public international law and to refer back to areas of the law after they have covered them. This latter quality is particularly relevant to the study of public international law whose specific subject areas are frequently intertwined. It is hoped that a new edition will soon appear to update the developments since 1997 and to maintain the position of this book as the primary point of reference for courses in public international law.
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