The International Law of Pollution: Protecting the Global Environment in a World of Sovereign States

A good book must have focus. This may not be the only criteria for evaluating a book, but it is certainly a sine qua non. A scholarly work such as Professor Springer's is a means of communicating ideas; the sharper its focus the clearer the message of its author and the better it and he communicates. When reading this book I wondered about its focus: was there a central unified objective? Having now completed the book, I can see that the author has painted us a useful, but blurred picture. He has not quite brought into focus his objective; much valuable information and many good ideas are obscured by the lack of a clear thesis. The book is not a repository or summing up of law; it does not provide reform or future-oriented suggestions; it does not argue for a particular point. What it does do is provide much interesting description on the theme of international pollution. But this is not the focus suggested by the author himself.