Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the sixth edition
- Preface to the first edition
- Acknowledgments
- Books, pamphlets, memoranda and articles excerpted
- Table of cases
- 1 Legislation – the Whitehall stage
- 2 Legislation – the Westminster stage
- 3 Statutory interpretation
- 4 Binding precedent – the doctrine of stare decisis
- 5 How precedent works
- 6 Law reporting
- 7 The nature of the judicial role in law-making
- 8 Other sources of law
- 9 The process of law reform
- Index
Preface to the first edition
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the sixth edition
- Preface to the first edition
- Acknowledgments
- Books, pamphlets, memoranda and articles excerpted
- Table of cases
- 1 Legislation – the Whitehall stage
- 2 Legislation – the Westminster stage
- 3 Statutory interpretation
- 4 Binding precedent – the doctrine of stare decisis
- 5 How precedent works
- 6 Law reporting
- 7 The nature of the judicial role in law-making
- 8 Other sources of law
- 9 The process of law reform
- Index
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.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Law-Making Process , pp. xivPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004