Making Commercial Law Through Practice 1830–1970. By Ross Cranston. [Cambridge University Press, 2021. xliv + 483 pp. Hardback £85.00. ISBN 978-1-10-818283-6.]

small role in the Anglo-Australian tradition. That accords with an interesting comparison between the UK and the US. Duxbury records that Holmes J produced more dissents of note than all of the Lords of Appeal put together, and that, Liversidge v Anderson aside, most non-lawyers could not be expected to confess any sort of familiarity with any dissenting British judgment (p. 219). The contrast is marked, and Duxbury explores why that is so. The second essay concludes, like the first, with the 21 century, with a personal communication from Lord Leggatt, from August 2020, explaining the current practice of the Supreme Court’s post-hearing meeting in which all judges give their provisional view (Lord Hope’s Diaries, Volume IV (Edinburgh 2019) reveals how nerve-wracking the post-hearings were, at least to him), before the presiding judge allocates the writing of the first draft, choosing a judge likely to achieve broad support. The former practice (not unknown in Australia) whereby a judge tries to shape the court’s opinion by distributing a draft early is said now to have been superseded. I warmly recommend this lepidum novum libellum. Its charm is different from that of Catullus, but it is immensely readable, and readers will be richly rewarded.