• Introduces the key topics in legal method and skills, enabling students to understand and put into practice key skills they will need throughout their degree course
• Includes a dedicated chapter on ratio decidendi and obiter dictum, which are difficult and yet vital concepts which first-year students may struggle to understand and put into practice
• Includes material on human rights and the influence of the EU, which sets the English legal system in its wider context and introduces these key topics from the outset
• An Online Resource Centre provides updates, guidance on answering legal problems, guidance on essay writing, self-test questions, and web links, offering students valuable support at the start of their course and allowing them to develop their written skills

New to this edition

• New 2-colour text design makes the book more user-friendly and allows the student to distinguish easily between text and exercises
• A test bank of 200 multiple choice questions and answers provides additional support to lecturers and students using the book and helps to test students' knowledge and to develop their understanding of key topics
• Now includes extra material on how cases are reported in chapter 5 which provides valuable background for students before they begin to study the doctrine of precedent
• Includes new exercises, diagrams, and improved sub-headings throughout
• Chapters on the EU and Human Rights have been updated to include recent changes

Readership: Suitable for undergraduates taking courses in legal method or the English legal system. Also suitable for anyone interested in the basic principles of the English legal system.

James Holland, Professor of Law, University of the West of England, Bristol, and Julian Webb, Professor of Legal Education, University of Warwick

""...books like these are such a godsend. This is an excellent text." Lex Magazine, 2005"

1: Understanding the law
2: Finding the law
3: Reading the law
4: Law, fact, and language
5: The doctrine of judicial precedent
6: How precedent operates: ratio decidendi and obiter dictum
7: Making sense of statutes
8: Interpreting statutes
9: 'Bringing rights home': legal method and convention rights
10: European legal method
11: Exploiting legal reasoning