Oxford University Press has released two new books on class actions that the practitioner may find helpful.

First, Brian Anderson and Andrew Trask have authored a second edition of their book The Class Action Playbook. This is not an academic work that trains on abstract principles or a typical treatise that focuses on case law developments, but a practical work full of advice and strategy considerations for counsel for both the plaintiff and the defendant. I regularly consult the first edition in my own practice. The second edition includes updated coverage of the Supreme Court’s recent Wal-Mart and Concepcion cases, along with the American Law Institute’s Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation. I spent a couple of hours perusing it today, and am confident the second edition will be just as useful as the first whenever an interesting question of strategy arises.

Second, Paul G. Karlsgodt has released World Class Actions: A Guide to Group and Representative Actions Around the Globe. As the title suggests, this book focuses on how putative class actions and other forms of aggregate litigation are handled overseas. It contains chapters on such diverse legal systems as Canada, Latin America, the European Union, Scandinavian countries, and China. For practitioners whose clients have business interests overseas, this book could prove invaluable in helping navigate the shoals of unfamiliar legal systems.