The Consumer Credit Act, which after many vicissitudes was passed on 31 July 1974, represents the product of nearly six years' concentrated labour. The genesis of the Act was the appointment in 1968 of the Crowther Committee on Consumer Credit, whose twovolume Report covering the entire field of consumer credit, and much else besides, was published in March 1971. The Committee devoted close attention to the state of the law governing credit transactions, and at an early stage in its deliberations concluded that consumer credit could not be considered in isolation from the general legal framework within which credit was provided, whether for business or for consumers. Among the seven major defects in credit law identified by the Committee, three were fundamental.

Most writing on the early history of the Inns of Court reflects an assumption which was very clearly stated by Sir Frederick Pollock,

On the whole then the constitution of the Inns of Court was settled about the middle of the fourteenth century on the lines which in all cssentials are much the same at this day. The only considerable formal change was that two centuries later the original governing committee of the Bench gave way to a single principal officer, the Treasurer.