The Law-Making Process

Description

As a critical analysis of the law-making process, this book has no equal. For more than three decades it has filled a gap in the requirements of students in law or political science taking introductory courses on the legal system and is now in its 7th edition. It deals with every aspect of the law-making process: the preparation of legislation; its passage through Parliament; statutory interpretation; binding precedent; how precedent works; law reporting; the nature of the judicial role; European Union law; and the process of law reform. It presents a large number of original texts from a variety of sources - cases, official reports, articles, books, speeches and empirical research studies - laced with the author's informed commentary and reflections on the subject. This book is a mine of information dealing with both the broad sweep of the subject and with all its detailed ramifications. "In a crowded market place Zander's latest edition of The Law-Making Process stands out like a beacon in the fog. Well chosen extracts from stimulating texts enable the neophyte student of the law making process in England and Wales to grapple with the issues of the hour with a forcefulness and insight we have long come to associate with the author. Highly recommended." Professor Alan Paterson "Law-making is important, fascinating, and fun. This new edition of Michael Zander's stimulating book on law-making brings that out. It takes account of the many developments since the 6th edition in 2004, ranging across the work of the Law Commission, parliamentary scrutiny of Bills, the relationship between our courts and the European Court of Human Rights, the EU, and many other matters. Well chosen extracts and thought-provoking commentary help law and politics students at every level to understand the raw material with which they work, and make more experienced practitioners and academics look afresh at topics we thought we understood. I recommend it highly." Professor David Feldman "As counsel, judge and now cross-bencher in the House of Lords I have been taking part in the law-making process for over fifty years. In explaining to me what I have been up to, Michael Zander both informed and amused. Not only does he deal in detail with every aspect of the law-making process, but he has assembled a rich cornucopia of commentary from a wide variety of sources. He has shown a degree of self-restraint in expressing his own views, though his use of an adverb made them pleasingly plain when he stated "On 3 October, 2014, the Conservative Party published an 8 page document, brazenly called "Protecting Human Rights in the UK". I commend this book to anyone who wishes to understand the far from simple way that law is made in this country." Lord Phillips

Michael Zander QC is Emeritus Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he taught from 1963 to 1988. His published books include Lawyers and the Public Interest (Weidenfeld & Nicolson,1968); Legal Services for the Community (Temple Smith,1978); A Matter of Justice (IB Tauris 1988); Cases and Materials on the English Legal System (10th edn, Cambridge, 2007); A Bill of Rights? (4th edn, Sweet & Maxwell, 1996); Zander on PACE (6th edn, Sweet & Maxwell, 2013); and the 1999 Hamlyn Lectures, The State of Justice (Sweet & Maxwell, 2000). He has conducted many empirical studies. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice (1991-93). For 25 years (1963-88) he was also Legal Correspondent of The Guardian and has been a frequent broadcaster on radio and television. He is acknowledged to be one of the foremost authorities on the workings of the legal system.

REVIEWS OF THE FIRST EDITION The Law-Making Process is a book which has developed out of the author's Cases and Materials on the English Legal System. The result lies somewhere between a collection of cases and materials and a text-book, the author illustrating a lively text by well-chosen extracts from a wide variety of sources. * Law Quarterly Review * The materials are well chosen, well grouped, varied and usually of a sensible length. They raise a series of consistently fascinating questions about the contemporary evolving and imperfect system. * Journal of the Society of Public Teachers of Law * Michael Zander has got together a most interesting collection of cases and materials, extracts and excerpts from all kinds of sources, with a light lucid linking commentary. . . The student who absorbs this book will have a good grounding, he will be on the right road. The more mature lawyer will have a better understanding of his craft. The law-maker who addresses himself to the institutional problems raised in this book, and genuinely seeks to overcome them, will be worthy of his responsibilities. * New Law Journal * This book shows that by using a full-range of source materials enlivened by critical comment it is possible to achieve a high level of knowledge about the mysteries of the law. The work is highly recommended. * The Legal Executive * It should be read by anyone whose elected or vocational office requires him to understand the law making process in this country. * Justice of the Peace * Then there are the two groups of students whose needs inspired Professor Zander to compile this volume. Taking the non-law students first, they should find this book a boon and a blessing, if they are grappling with a specialised part of an unfamiliar subject. As for the law students, there is something familiar and something fresh for them, with plenty of indications for future reading. The Zander approach has given them a new way of looking at the law library shelves. . . * Statute Law Review * This is a most readable, stimulating book containing many extracts and excerpts which the ordinary law student would not find and might not search out, even if he were given the references. While no attempt has been made to deal with Scots law or Scottish conditions much of the book is generally relevant to study in Scotland and could be read with profit by Scottish students. -- Professor David Walker * Juridical Review *