Book Review
| DOI | 10.1093/slr/3.1.62 |
| Pages | 62-64 |
| Date | 01 March 1982 |
| Year | 1982 |
| Published By | Oxford University Press |
Book Review
Law Publishing *nA Legal
T"f<n
"mtior?; Small Jnriiwtirrirwm of die
British Isles. William Twining and Jennifer Ugtow (eds.). Sweet & MaxwelL
1981.
£10.
Making the law, and making the law accessible, are two very closely inter-
related activities. What die lawmaker (whether legislator or judge) produces
the legal publisher (whether official or private) has to disseminate, and con-
cerned in that process of dissemination are a variety of individuals and
bodies—die lawyers of today and dieir professional organisations, the lawyers
of tomorrow—die law students and their teachers, die laymen and their
advisers and die bodies concerned with lay needs for die law. So it is appro-
priate to review in die Rtoitw a book which die distribution of die law, its past
publications, present problems and future plans. For die purposes of this
review a two-pronged approach will be adopted, one pointing to die book itself
and die other dealing specifically widi some reference in it to legislation.
To set die book in its context, die editors indicate in their introduction that it
is related to two odier publications. The first is a report on
Legal Ethtmthn in
a
Changing
World,
published for die International Legal Center in 1975, and die
second is Ltgal Littratun in Small
Jurisdictions
published by die Canada Law
Information Council and die Cotnmonwealtii Legal Education A«"*i*"ti"" in
1981.
Thus from die shortage of expository textbooks in recendy independent
jurisdictions and die problems of localising legal literature it
is
a logical step to
this study of die problems of die distribution of die law in die small jurisdictions
of die British Isles, using die hut-mentioned term in its geographical sense.
The "small jurisdictions," in the order diey are dealt widi in die book are
Scotland, die Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and die Isle of Man. In
tiiat order diey appear in descending order bodi of population and "legal
population," meaning mereby diose direcdy connected widi die law, in what-
ever capacity, which is perhaps wider than die term "lawyer population,"
diough die same descending scale would apply to that term also. Each
jurisdiction is dealt widi in broadly similar fashion, diough varying conditions
in each mean tibat die emphasis
is
somewhat different at times, as indeed
is
only
to be expected in a study of
diis
land.
Ms.
Ugiow has written die first chapter, on Scodand, pointing to die distinct
base of Scots law but also to die identity or similarity of English and Scottish
statutes, necessitating reference to die reports, books and journals produced
soum of me Tweed and die Sohvay. At one end of die timescale she refers to
institutional writers such as Stair and at die other she disnuwes die publica-
tions of die Scottish Universities Law Institute. Her statement that "Scodand
is a small jurisdiction- widi a small market for specialised legal
works"
applies
a
fortiori to even smaller jurisdictions, especially as she applies it to secondary
radier dian primary
sources.
There
follows
a brief analysis of existing provision
of legal literature, bom primary and secondary (a valuable feature of die
treatment of all four jurisdictions) and in dealing widi future initiatives men-
tions die project for a new
Emydopat&a
ojtht
Laws
of
Scotland.
It
is
satisfying to
note here that this project has been initiated and diat die new work will be
dedicated to die memory of Stair.
62
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