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Civil Procedures of the South Pacific by Jennifer Corrin Care (Book Review) [1999] JSPL 7; (1999) 3 Journal of South Pacific Law

BOOK REVIEW

BY EDWARD R. HILL

LAW CLINIC SUPERVISOR,
SCHOOL OF LAW,
UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC

 Title: Civil Procedures of the South Pacific

Author: Jennifer Corrin Care

Published by Institute of Justice and Applied Legal Studies, USP: Suva (1998)

ISBN: 982-352-003-8

pp: 194, xxiv

Civil procedure is a technical area of the law but one that everyone who practises or aspires to practise civil litigation must be familiar with. Using the rules of court effectively can facilitate settlement or provide an advantage when a case does proceed to trial. At the same time, a lack of facility with the rules of court creates extra work for lawyers, extra expense and delay for clients and frustration for judges and court registries.

Civil Procedures of the South Pacific by Jennifer Corrin Care, the third in a series on Pacific law published by IJALS, finally provides students and others with a text that deals with civil procedure in a Pacific context. The stated aim of the book is to ‘outline the main rules of procedure that govern the conduct of civil cases in countries served by the University of the South Pacific’. The fact that USP serves 12 separate countries indicates the magnitude of the challenge that this aim entails. However, in less than 200 pages of clear and concise writing, the stated aim is accomplished.

The book sensibly limits the scope of the task in several ways. First, the work does not concern itself with public law cases that have an administrative or constitutional law base. Judicial review and appeals are also beyond the scope of this work. While the book outlines the variety of methods for commencing a civil action, only civil cases that are commenced by writ of summons and/or a statement of claim are considered at length. This excludes civil cases that, in some jurisdictions, may be commenced by petition or some other means. While this limitation (which exists to some extent in most other books on the subject) makes the book less than exhaustive in terms of its coverage of the subject, it is particularly understandable here. This is because, as the author points out on page 46, there is some ambiguity in at least 5 jurisdictions about the use of alternatives to the writ of summons. Also, proceedings commenced by writ are the most lengthy and complex in nature and they represent the majority of civil cases.

The book concerns itself with the jurisdiction of the courts of inherent jurisdiction throughout the region. The procedure governing the lower courts, notably magistrates’ courts and others created by statute is not treated. This is a sensible limitation in view of the fact that knowledge of the rules governing higher courts is a solid base for understanding the less complex procedures in lower courts where those procedures differ.