English and International Set-off

The efficient functioning of international financial and commercial markets is absolutely essential to the health of the world economy. Participants in these markets are constantly aware of the need to minimize exposure to risk: the law of set-off plays a crucial role in their calculations. The objective of all legal intervention in this field is to provide a degree of certainty in an uncertain commercial environment and, in the worst case, to reduce the hazard of domino insolvencies or the catastrophe of systematic failure. This major treatise examines the wide range of situations in which set-off is available and provides an international overview of the subject. Phillip Wood's treatment of this field combines theory with practice as he explains problems and indicates functional solutions to them. Each chapter contains a summary guide and a key to the terms and abbreviations used which the reader will find invaluable in using a book of this size. The text itself includes lengthy citations from the relevant judgments and a large number of case summaries.
The major part of the text is based upon the English common law and will be relevant to the 60 or so jurisdictions which regard British decisions as persuasive. The author has assembled an eminent group of international correspondents to assist him with these aspects of the subject and the position in Napoleonic and Germanic jurisdictions is considered in outline.