ABSTRACT
Much attention has been given by jurists to the problems said to arise from the existing ‘untidy and incoherent’ shape of English law. Scarman J, in a lecture delivered in 1966 (A Code of English Law?) suggested that the shape of current law is neither simple nor modern and that it is accessible only to those with the training (and the stamina) ‘to explore the jungle of case and statute law’. He advocated codification of the law in a manner which would allow the judges to retain a vital legislative function by continuing to interpret the law and, specifically, to deal with situations with which a code might have failed to deal: the judges would be, in effect, ‘critics in continuous session’.
