Law in ContextPET正CANEAtiyah's Accidents,Compensation andthe LawSeventh Editionwww.cambridge.org/9780521689311This page intentionally left blankAtiyah's Accidents,Compensation and the Law Seventh EditionSince its first publication,Accidents,Compensation and the Law has beenrecognised as the leading treatment of the law of personal injuries compensationand the social,political and economic issues surrounding it.The seventh editionof this classic work explores recent momentous changes in personal injury lawand practice and puts them into broad perspective.Most significantly,itexamines developments affecting the financing and conduct of personal injuryclaiming:the abolition of legal aid for most personal injury claims;the increasinguse of conditional fee agreements and after-the-event insurance;the meteoricrise and impending regulation of the claims management industry.Complaintsthat Britain is a 'compensation culture'suffering an 'insurance crisis'areinvestigated.New statistics on tort claims are discussed,providing fresh insightsinto the evolution of the tort system which,despite recent reforms,remainsdeeply flawed and ripe for radical reform.Peter Cane has been Professor of Law in the Research School of SocialSciences at the Australian National University since 1997.For twenty yearspreviously he taught law at Corpus Christi College Oxford.His main researchinterests are in the law of obligations,especially tort law;public law,especiallyadministrative law;and legal theory.Recent publications include Responsibilityin Law and Morality (2002)and The Oxford Handbook of Legal Studies (editedwith Mark Tushnet)(2003).Patrick Atiyah is one of the leading common lawyers of his generation.Untilhis early retirement in 1988 he was Professor of English Law at OxfordUniversity.His published writings range widely over topics in tort law,contractlaw,legal history and legal theory;and include The Sale of Goods (1Ith editionwith J N Harpers and H L McQueen,2005),The Rise and Fall of Freedom ofContract (1985)and The Damages Lottery (1997).