Since the third edition (of 2000) there have been substantial European and national developments. The extension of the European Union has meant the increase in scope of European law. With particular relevance to this work this extension has been accompanied by bringing the jurisdiction and judgments regime of the Brussels Convention into that law through Regulation 44/2001. However that Convention and the Lugano Convention remain in forcethe first as regards Member States and Denmark and the second as it was prior to the Regulation. The issue of whether the national or European regime applies has occupied a great deal of English judicial attention with the European Court not always seeing the assertion of English principles as consistent with the European structure. The advent of the Regulation means an additional question of which European regime is applicable, and has raised serious issues of the power of Member States to become parties to multilateral maritime treaties.

In English law, apart from European matters, the principal relevant developments have been the full inclusion in the Civil Procedure Rules of Admiralty and Arbitration proceedings, the continuing construction of the Rules as compared to the earlier Rules of the Supreme Court and on a particular jurisdictional issue, the approach to the anti-suit injunction.

The pattern of the book remains as in previous editions. There are five parts.

Parts I and II encompass:

• (1) the extent to which a connection is required between England and a dispute for an English court to hear and determine the dispute;
• (2) the characteristics of the actions in personam and in rem as methods of enforcing a claim;
• (3) grounds for and restrictions on powers (and their exercise) of English courts to hear and determine disputesincluding the relationship between English and European law;
• (4) time restrictions on the bringing and pursuit of a claim:
• (5) the availability and nature of arbitration as an alternative to litigation.

Part III is a discussion of interim relief and the extent to which, if at all, a claimant can ensure that the defendants assets are available to satisfy a judgment.