Author Description

This analytical study covers recent developments in the English legal system, documenting events and highlighting the crucial questions that confront lawyers, the judiciary, the courts and the police as well as more general issues raised by the British legal system. Among the topics considered are the selection process for judges, the role of judges, how change to the solicitors' monopoly in conveyancing and the barristers' monopoly in the higher courts will affect the legal profession, how the running of the courts could be made cheaper and less subject to delays, whether the courts are accessible to those without means, whether juries aquit too many guilty people and whether the powers of the police are too great. The book also examines the case for a Ministry of Justice and considers the need for a Bill of Rights. It looks at the advantages and disadvantages of codification of the law and assesses the value of reforms currently in progress. Recent developments mentioned in the text include the publication of the Civil Justice Review and the report of the Marre Committee on the future of the legal profession, the appointment of the new Lord Chancellor, the Government's decision to abolish the Right of Silence and the enactment of the Legal Aid Act.