1 Law in the Courts 1
Courts and the legal system 1
The superior courts 6
Juries 20
The lower courts 24
The legal profession 28
Courts as decision-making bodies 32
Due process of law 39
Two peculiarities of the English judicial system 43
2 Law outside the courts 48
Legal institutions 48
Law and the physical world 50
Persuasion and compulsion in the observance of law 53
The law and the constitution 58
The Common Market 61
The rule of law 64
Law in theory and law in practice 68
3 The purposes of law 72
Does law have any purposes？ 72
Law as an instrument of policy 80
Economic goals 84
A bias in favour of traditional values？ 86
General rules and particular decisions 89
4 The legitimacy of law 97
Does legitimacy matter？ 97
The positivist tradition 100
Positivism and the constitution 105
A Bill of Rights？ 108
The rejection of legitimacy 112
5 The making of law 114
The changing law 114
Legislation 121
Delegated legislation 129
Judicial law-making 130
The doctrine of precedent 134
Bad law 138
6 Conclusions 146
Further Reading 150
Index 157