Preface to the first edition

Summary

The chief purpose of this book is to improve the understanding of the law-making process. For many years I have taught the English Legal System course at the London School of Economics and an equivalent course taken by non-law students. Experience has suggested to me that there is a great gap in the existing literature which this book attempts to fill. It is something between a book of cases and materials, on the one hand, and a textbook on the other. It presents a large number of original texts from a variety of sources – cases, official reports, articles, books, speeches and surveys. It also, however, contains a good deal of the author's own reflections on the subject-matter. The book deals only with the official forms of law-making on a national scale and therefore says nothing about ‘private’ law-making by lawyers for their clients or by organisations such as trade unions, clubs or companies for their members or shareholders. The book is intended as a companion to the author's Cases and Materials on the English Legal System [9th edn, 2004]. There is no overlap between the two books. They are intended to complement each other and together to provide the basic reading required for a university or equivalent course on the legal system. It is hoped that the book will also be of value to anyone concerned to understand how the law-making process actually operates.