There are few battles in the publishing world - let alone the legal publishing world - as hard- fought and vicious as the tussle between the Green Book and the White Book for the first slot on the legal bookshop shelves. This year's winner is in the green corner, with its publishers reckoning they have stolen a march of at least a fortnight on the white corner. LexisNexis/ Butterworths, the proud parents of the Green'un, celebrated the birth of the 2005 version the other week at a bash at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. One of the highlights of an action-packed event was a remark from this year's editor-in-chief, Lord Justice Neuberger, who confessed to 'a perverted affection for the Green Book'. Whether his next remark - 'I can't pretend to have read it all' - was a comfort or a worry to the LexisNexis mob is a matter of conjecture. There were also anxious moments when Neuberger LJ was spotted going head-to-head with Lord Justice Brooke, the general editor of the white counterpart (published by Sweet & Maxwell), but the two chaps seemed to be having a perfectly civilised discussion about the subtle shades of difference between their publications. The rest of the world, of course, simply yawns and wonders what all the fuss is about, as many suggest that one guide to civil court procedure is much like another. Indeed, as Obiter learnt at the launch, the most macho litigators now opt for the Blue Book, published by the Stationary Office on behalf of the Department for Constitutional Affairs. This no-frills option includes just the rules and provides no commentary at all. Lawyers who step into court clutching 'the Bluey' are clearly sending a strong message to the judge and the other side that they don't need any advice on how to play the game.