This Journal does not normally publish reviews of books after their first edition but the fourth edition of the key text on ecclesiastical law by the chairman of the Ecclesiastical Law Society calls for a salute and a warm welcome, particularly after an interval of 11 years which have seen significant events in the Church of England, with new legislation and case law, succinctly summarised in the author's preface.

The commentary which makes up two thirds of the text provides an accessible account of essential principles for a wide range of potential readers, from lawyers unfamiliar with the subject to laity serving as Synod members. It may be valued by a new member of the parochial church council of a large and active church who wants to get to grips with the law regulating the Church; at the other end of the potential market, with its handy collection of materials, it provides a useful vade mecum for the ecclesiastical law specialist. The last ten years have seen a culling of much outdated material and the consolidation and revision of major areas of ecclesiastical law, as a result of which the new Hill is a slimmer and more portable volume, reduced from the 793 pages of the third edition to 614 pages.

The pruning has left occasional loose ends, as where the case of Blake v Associated Newspapers is included in the table of cases, although it is no longer in the text (p xxv, referring to para 5.01 – a publisher's mistake picked up and corrected in the limited edition paperback). Generally, however, reordering of the text sharpens the reader's focus. For example, in the chapter on the parish, more prominence is given to pastoral schemes and orders. Some condensation reduces duplication, as where the place of consistory courts is explained in the section on chancellors and is no longer given a separate subsection (para 2.50). Some more academic discussion has been relegated, such as the omission of a subsection on the vires of draft measures and canons.

There are substantial omissions which may have kept the increased price of £150 from being even higher. The Measures concerning cathedrals are omitted from the materials, although they are still dealt with thoroughly in the commentary. The Church Representation Rules in previous editions were of particular value for readers dealing with parish affairs but are understandably left out, as they are due for early revision. Most obviously, there is no attempt in this edition to include selected cases among the materials. These may have been useful in providing the uninitiated with a feel for cases as a source of law but were necessarily a limited and rather random selection.

Significant additions include discussion of common tenure (paras 4.33–4.43), mission initiatives through bishops’ mission and pastoral orders (paras 3.80–3.82), the provision for those not accepting women's ordained ministry (para 3.33) and discussion at various points on the major matter of safeguarding.

The new Hill will maintain its place at the centre of any ecclesiastical law library, between the exhaustive scholarship of Chancellor Bursell's volume 34 of Halsbury's Laws and Chancellor Mynors’ invaluable practical guide to the faculty jurisdiction in Changing Churches. However, despite the current renewed initiative by the Ecclesiastical Law Society in promoting the study of the subject in ordination and in in-service training, unless its price is substantially reduced with a much increased print run, Hill is unlikely to find the place it deserves in the study of every ordained minister in full time service in the Church of England and on every ordinand's list of books required to be purchased. The publishers should, however, be applauded for providing a special paperback print run at an affordable price for members of the Ecclesiastical Law Society and of the General Synod.

In tandem with Hill, a welcome can be given to Dr Behrens’ revision of the ecclesiastical law part of volume 18(1) of Atkin's Encyclopaedia of Court Forms. The volume contains 166 forms for a full range of ecclesiastical matters, in particular disciplinary and faculty proceedings, cathedral fabric appeals and administrative documentation for pastoral schemes and for chancel repairs, where a duty to provide for these subsists. The volume will update the set in the library of a solicitor's office or a barrister's chambers but is also available as a single volume and is a valuable acquisition for the serious church administrator.