The Palgrave Macmillan Law Masters series is a long-running and successful list of titles offering clear, concise and authoritative guides to the main subject areas, written by experienced and respected authors.
This ninth edition of Legal Method provides a lively introduction to the nature of the English legal system and its sources, and to the techniques which lawyers use when handling those sources. The text assumes no prior knowledge and makes its content accessible by clarity of expression rather than by dilution of content. In addition to more conventional sources, writers as varied as Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and T. S. Eliot are cited.
This is an ideal course companion for both law undergraduate and GDL/CPE students. Includes end of chapter summaries and self-test exercises.
PART I: IDEAS AND INSTITUTIONS
1. An Introduction to Law and Legal Reasoning
2. The Classifications of English Law
3. The Jurisdictions of the Principal English Courts
4. The Constitutional Context of Legal Method
5. European Community Law and English Law
6. The Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
7. Finding, Citing and Using the Sources of Law
PART II: CASE-LAW AND PRECEDENT
8. An Introduction to the Doctrine of Binding Precedent
9. Ratio Decidendi and Obiter Dictum
10. Vertical and Horizontal Dimensions of Precedent
11. Does the House of Lords Bind Itself?
12. Does the Court of Appeal Bind Itself?
13. Does the High Court Bind Itself?
14. Arguments For and Against Judicial Law Making
15. Precedent and Principle in the European Court of Justice
PART III: LEGISLATION AND LEGISLATIVE INTERPRETATION
16. An Introduction to Statute Law and Statutory Interpretation
17. Statutory Drafting
18. Plain Meanings, Mischiefs, Purposes and Legislative Intention
19. Modern Interpretation in Practice
20. Legislative Interpretation in the European Court of Justice.
