ABSTRACT
There are a number of possible approaches to the study of law. One such is the tradi tional or form al istic approach. This approach to law is posited on the exist ence of a discrete legal universe as the object of study. It is concerned with estab lish ing a know ledge of the specific rules, both substant ive and proced ural, which derive from statute and common law and which regu late social activ ity. The essen tial point in rela tion to this approach is that study is restric ted to the sphere of the legal without refer ence to the social activ ity to which the legal rules are applied. In the past, most tradi tional law courses and the major ity of law text books adopted this ‘black letter’ approach. Their object was the provi sion of inform a tion on what the current rules and prin ciples of law were, and how to use those rules and prin ciples to solve what were, by defin i tion, legal prob lems. Traditionally, English legal system courses have focused atten tion on the insti tu tions of the law, predom in antly the courts, in which legal rules and prin ciples are put into oper a tion, and here too the under ly ing assump tion has been as to the closed nature of the legal world – its distinct ive ness and separ ate ness from normal every day activ ity. This book contin ues that tradi tion to a degree, but also recog nises, and has tried to accom mod ate, the dissat is fac tion with such an approach that has been increas ingly evident among law teach ers and exam iners in this area. To that end, the authors have tried not simply to produce a purely expos it ory text, but have attemp ted to intro duce an element of crit ical aware ness and assess ment into the areas considered. Potential exam in a tion candid ates should appre ci ate that it is just such crit ical, analyt ical thought that distin guishes the good student from the mundane one.
