All the Law on Road Traffic
| Date | 01 May 1961 |
| Published date | 01 May 1961 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6103400312 |
| Author | J. L. Thomas |
| Subject Matter | Article |
SUPERINTENDENT
J. L.
THOMAS
City
of
Bradford Police
."\n
tbe
Law
on
Road
Trame
The Encyclopaedia
of
Road Traffic and Practice (Sweet &Maxwell
£7 7s.) gathers for the first time in one volume all the law relating
to road traffic required in the criminal courts. The law is reproduced
as it stood on September 20, 1960, and the preface states:
"This
being designed as a loose-leaf work, all amendments can be promptly
given effect to by the issue of fresh releases." One of the major
tests of a work of this nature is, of course, the speed and efficiency
with which it is kept up to date. No judgment on this score can yet
be passed, but it is worth mentioning that the steel rods between
the stout covers of the book are so arranged as to facilitate swift
and sure removal and insertion of pages without any risk of damage.
No charge is being made
for"
releases" (as the publishers term
them) issued up to December 31, 196I.
As the book costs seven guineas one is entitled to approach it
from a very critical angle indeed. First, though, abrief summary
of its contents is called for. The short preface (wherein the year
1934 is wrongly assigned to the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933) is
followed by a table of statutes and a table of cases, and the book
proper is divided into the following four parts:
I-Road
Traffic
Act, 1960;
II-Other
Acts;
lIl-Rules
and Orders;
IV-Informa-
tions, Summonses, Indictments, etc. Scottish readers are well
catered for, and only the contents of the last part do
not
apply to
Scotland. Later in this article the contents of each
part
will be
described and, where necessary, commented upon.
By far the major
part
of the volume comprises a straightforward
reproduction of the relevant statutes and subordinate legislation.
It
will be appreciated from the description furnished above that the
legislation has not been grouped under individual subjects, with
the result that the reader frequently has to consult three different
parts in order to ascertain the law appertaining to one particular
subject. Moreover, because all the enactments have been arranged
in a chronological sequence, in part II statutes dealing with the same
subject are separated by the infiltration of other
statutes-and
the
same applies with regard to the regulations, etc., in
part
III.
Nevertheless, because of the strict chronological sequence and the
,elaborate numbering of paragraphs, anyone with a knowledge of
road traffic law will very quickly find his way about in the book.
May-June 1961 209
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