- Concise and up-to-date critical analysis of the English legal system makes this text suitable for use on all undergraduate law courses
- Explores the competing themes and underlying tensions facing the legal system in today's modern society thereby encouraging students to develop an in-depth understanding of the subject
- Highlighted summaries at the beginning of each chapter enable students to assess the key points of study quickly and easily
- End of chapter further reading lists, useful web site links and self-test questions allow students to research the subject in more depth, and to test their progress and understanding
New to this edition
- The chapters covering the courts and the judiciary have all been revised to include the provisions made by the Constitutional Reform Bill
- Commentary on new developments with regard to the regulation of the legal profession include, for example, the clementi review
- All statistics and data from the first edition have been fully updated
The Legal System provides an overview of the institutions, personnel and procedures that make up the legal system in England and Wales explaining and critically evaluating current changes.
The text explores a number of key competing themes and underlying tensions which run through the legal system in today's modern society thereby encouraging students to develop an in-depth understanding of the subject.
The book draws out the difficult dilemmas which the system is currently facing: Should efficiency be prioritised over quality of justice? Is the civil justice system fundamentally private or public? Can litigation be discouraged without reducing access to justice?
These are the sorts of questions which must be addressed in order to understand the direction in which the legal system is moving. Nor are the answers necessarily driven by the needs and internal logic of the system itself. The book shows how political and economic priorities are just as important in determining the policies which shape the legal system today.
Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The organisation of the courts
- 3 Sources of law
- 4 The Human Rights Act 1998
- 5 The legislative process
- 6 Statutory interpretation
- 7 Case law, precendent and judicial law-making
- 8 The civil justice process
- 9 The Woolf reforms to civil justice
- 10 Recent trends in the criminal justice system
- 11 Police powers
- 12 The prosecution process
- 13 The trial process
- 14 Criminal appeals and the post-appeal process
- 15 The provision of legal services
- 16 The structure and functions of the judiciary
- 17 Judicial appointments
- 18 Lay adjudication
- 19 Funding of legal services
- Explores the competing themes and underlying tensions facing the legal system in today's modern society thereby encouraging students to develop an in-depth understanding of the subject
- Highlighted summaries at the beginning of each chapter enable students to assess the key points of study quickly and easily
- End of chapter further reading lists, useful web site links and self-test questions allow students to research the subject in more depth, and to test their progress and understanding
New to this edition
- The chapters covering the courts and the judiciary have all been revised to include the provisions made by the Constitutional Reform Bill
- Commentary on new developments with regard to the regulation of the legal profession include, for example, the clementi review
- All statistics and data from the first edition have been fully updated
The Legal System provides an overview of the institutions, personnel and procedures that make up the legal system in England and Wales explaining and critically evaluating current changes.
The text explores a number of key competing themes and underlying tensions which run through the legal system in today's modern society thereby encouraging students to develop an in-depth understanding of the subject.
The book draws out the difficult dilemmas which the system is currently facing: Should efficiency be prioritised over quality of justice? Is the civil justice system fundamentally private or public? Can litigation be discouraged without reducing access to justice?
These are the sorts of questions which must be addressed in order to understand the direction in which the legal system is moving. Nor are the answers necessarily driven by the needs and internal logic of the system itself. The book shows how political and economic priorities are just as important in determining the policies which shape the legal system today.
Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The organisation of the courts
- 3 Sources of law
- 4 The Human Rights Act 1998
- 5 The legislative process
- 6 Statutory interpretation
- 7 Case law, precendent and judicial law-making
- 8 The civil justice process
- 9 The Woolf reforms to civil justice
- 10 Recent trends in the criminal justice system
- 11 Police powers
- 12 The prosecution process
- 13 The trial process
- 14 Criminal appeals and the post-appeal process
- 15 The provision of legal services
- 16 The structure and functions of the judiciary
- 17 Judicial appointments
- 18 Lay adjudication
- 19 Funding of legal services