Preface

Law teachers and examiners often complain that many students fail to do themselves justice. More particularly, they complain that although many students have learned a great deal of law, they have simply not mastered the skills of using the law to deal with the kind of tasks that they have to perform.

This edition continues the established structure of the book by beginning with an introduction to some basic ideas which underpin both law itself and the English legal system, before explaining how lawyers find and cite the sources of law. There is then a discussion of the basic principles of legal method, followed by a chapter on how to read law reports and statutes. The case we have chosen to illustrate the way in which law reports should be read is Henthorn v Fraser [1892] 2 Ch 27 and we are grateful to the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales, Megarry House, 119 Chancery Lane, London, WC2A 1PP, publishers of The Law Reports and The Weekly Law Reports, for permission to reproduce the text. The statute we have chosen is the Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act 2003, the original text of which was printed under the superintendence and authority of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, being the Queen’s Printer of Acts of Parliament. The Act is Crown copyright and is reproduced by permission. After a chapter on how to write formal English, the final three chapters explain how to answer essay questions and problem questions, and how to make oral presentations.

The major changes to the content of the previous edition are that Chapter 7, which deals with Legal Method, has been extensively rewritten and a full specimen essay has been included in Chapter 10. Additionally, of course, we have tried to reduce the infelicities which inevitably seem to slip through any process of writing, rewriting and proof-reading.

Although we have each been responsible for originating individual chapters, we have jointly revised the whole book. Accordingly, convention requires that, publicly at any rate, we must each accept full responsibility for any remaining defects. Of course, this will not stop us privately blaming each other if any such matters are subsequently brought to our attention.

We are grateful to Jacqui McLeod for continuing to act as our editorial assistant, to Suzie Burywood for her cheerful patience and support at all times and to Ian Kingston for taking care of the copy-editing and type-setting.

If this book helps students to find their feet in the early stages of their studies, and to develop their skills in such a way as to improve their performance in assessed work, we will have achieved our aim.

Simon Askey Ian McLeod April 2014