This edition appears at a moment of both loss and gain for the Admiralty Court. The retirement of Mr Justice David Steel from his post as Admiralty Judge is the great loss. His retirement marks the end of a distinguished judicial career spanning thirteen years. Highly regarded for his sureness of touch and firm (but fair) handling of cases in the Admiralty and Commercial Court, he will be greatly missed by all practitioners. Fortunately, he will not be entirely lost to the maritime law community because he plans to return to Quadrant Chambers to act as a mediator and arbitrator. We are grateful to him for finding time to write a foreword to this edition. As to the Courts gain, the move to the gleaming Rolls Building on Fetter Lane promises to bring with it immense improvements in the working environment and technological facilities for Admiralty Court users.

In this fully revised and updated fourth edition a number of chapters have been substantially altered to take account of developments since 2003. Chapters 1 and 2 have been extensively modified to reflect the continuing impact of the jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice on the proper scope and interpretation of Regulation 44/2001. Chapter 7 contains a detailed consideration of the tension between the role of nautical assessors in Admiralty proceedings and Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights first highlighted in The "Bow Spring" and The "Manzanillo II [2005] 1 Lloyds Rep 1. Chapter 8 on limitation actions has been substantially revised in light of The "CMA Djakarta" [2004] 1 Lloyds Rep 460, The "Western Regent" [2005] 2 Lloyds Rep 359 and The "MSC Napoli" [2009] 1 Lloyds Rep 246. At the request of junior practitioners, a number of topics are introduced in this edition for the first time, including: the admissibility of MAIB reports in Admiralty proceedings, "Vasso Orders" and the problems associated with starting Admiralty claims in the County Court.