ABSTRACT
Generally speaking, the literature of the law of a jurisdiction comprises primary and secondary legal materials-as shown in figure 1.
The primary materials are the statement of the law itself, and the secondary are commentary, discussion and opinion on the primary. The primary frequently consist of two categories of material: legislation (the law made by the legislature or Parliament), and the decisions of the courts of law: case or judge-made law. There is sometimes a third category of primary material: codes, principles and standards of practice, possibly approved by bodies outside the legislature, Parliament or courts, which (whilst not having the force of law) are recognised as guides to good practice. The secondary materials comprise periodicals, textbooks, encyclopaedias and reference works. In the pages which follow a description of these types of legal material is organised according to jurisdiction.
