At nearly 500 pages long this is a comprehensive work, not particularly designed to be read from cover to cover, but it works well as a relatively quick reference guide. Divided into three parts it explains sources of law, academic legal skills and practical legal skills.
Each chapter follows the same format of an introduction, learning outcomes, the main body of the chapter, chapter summary and further reading. The learning outcomes and chapter summary provide a useful contents and index to each chapter.
Part One takes the reader through the primary sources of legal information, followed by a section on books, journals and official publications. Both historical and practical perspectives are explained, for example, the emergence of common law in England and how legislation moves from bill to statute. Chapters begin with simple concepts, moving towards more complex areas such as European Law.
Part Two on academic legal skills is excellent. It offers advice on note taking, sticking to word limits, plagiarism, essay writing, punctuation and language, so this book is well placed to support first year students through to their dissertation submission. The seven chapters devoted to these topics are succinct.
The more advanced students, those on the BVC/BPTC or LPC for example, would find the final section on Practical Legal Skills of particular importance. It provides information on how to prepare for and deliver presentations and moots. It gives equal importance to both researching the content and the practicalities of delivery. The authors have been comprehensive in their coverage of tackling nerves and the differences between mooting as an appellant or respondent.
Interspersed throughout the book are clearly labelled diagrams ranging from the hierarchy of English courts to an explanation of the running order of a moot. Screenshots of websites and legal databases are included as are URLs. Definitions of certain legal terms are explained, but a glossary at the end of the book, or each chapter, would have been more beneficial as a quick reference tool. For students new to using case citators, the chart explaining the meaning of terms such as distinguished, considered, applied, etc., is a thoughtful inclusion especially as some legal dictionaries neglect to explain these commonly used terms.
Additionally, Oxford University Press (OUP) provides an Online Resource Centre which has sections for both students and lecturers. Resources include: answers to self-test questions, video links and a glossary. The disadvantage of anything online is that without access to the internet these resources cannot be used. The test bank and diagrams available online to lecturers are in a password protected area and thus unable to be reviewed at this time.
As with any publication, information can soon change and so details about any existing or forthcoming publication become out-of-date, as in the explanation of Halsbury's Laws of England because it only refers to the 4th edition, making no reference to the current transition to the 5th edition. Other errors were noted, for example, that the Times Law Report appears on Tuesdays, when it is in fact Thursday. Some chapters can be a little dense and hard going. However, writing about law and making it palatable is no easy task. Information on European Law is not the easiest subject to give an overview of and perhaps readers looking for this information would do well to find a text exclusively on EU Law.
Some law schools produce their own legal research skills text or handouts, but overall this title is a well researched generic text useful to all law students regardless of where they study. Legal librarians could recommend this book to undergraduates and GDL students, as it answers the most elementary of questions, but it would also serve well as an aide memoire to students further along in their legal education.
