UK abortion law remains unsettled, and subject to on‐going controversy and reform. This article offers a comprehensive critique of all reforms implemented or proposed since 2016. It examines reforms proposed in both Houses of Parliament and contextualises them within a public law analysis, showing both that the complex parliamentary processes relating to Private Members’ Bills have frustrated reform attempts, and that these attempts have been contradictory in their aims between the two Houses. Secondly, it examines the unique positions of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to show the extent to which devolutionary settlements have influenced both reforms and executive involvement. Finally, it examines the potential impact of the courts on abortion law following Re Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission's Application for Judicial Review, showing that the Supreme Court's reframing of the debate in human rights terms is likely to affect abortion law, not only in Northern Ireland, but in the whole of the UK.

reviews 271 before the sixteenth century (145). The wider intellectual context in which maritime laws might be considered binding neither because of orders from above, nor because of promises from below, but because of the existence of expertise, is left unexplored. Nevertheless, two dimensional as this examination of maritime law may seem, on these two dimensions -the circulation of written compilations and the handling of cases in the courts -it is impressive both in its wide range and its attention to detail. The high quality of the research and writing is matched in the production of the book, which by current standards is not extortionately priced for the wealth of information and depth of insight it provides. "Now that has been established" should surely have been "Now that it has been established" (115), and "as to its providence" should presumably have been "and as to its providence", or "provenance" (xiii), but otherwise misprints are hard to find. The book makes a significant contribution to Scottish legal history, and anyone interested in medieval maritime law will wish to study it closely and constantly.

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