ABSTRACT
The law in the United Kingdom has evolved over a long period. It has, over the centuries, successfully adapted itself through a great variety of social settings and types of government. Today it contains elements that are ancient, such as the coroner’s courts, which have an 800-year history, and elements that are very modern, such as electronic law reports and judges using laptop computers. Law has also become much more widely recognized as the standard by which behaviour needs to be judged. A very telling change in recent history is the way in which the law has permeated all parts of social life. The universal standard of whether something is socially acceptable is progressively becoming whether it is legal. In earlier times, most people were illiterate and did not have the vote. They were ruled, in effect, by what we would call tyranny. And this was not just in 1250. That state of affairs still existed in the UK in 1850. Today, by contrast, most people are literate and have the vote. Parliamentary democracy is our system of government. So, it is quite possible and desirable for people in general to take an interest in law. A widely esteemed jurist, A.V. Dicey, said that:
Like the pen or the knife, law is a versatile instrument that can be used equally well for the improvement or the degradation of humanity. In a healthily participative social democracy, law can be used to serve the general public interest.
