Review: Wilkinson's Road Traffic Offences (Twentieth Edition)
| Published date | 01 April 2002 |
| Author | Jeremy Wheeler |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X0207500208 |
| Date | 01 April 2002 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS
WILKINSON'S ROAD TRAFFIC OFFENCES
(TWENTIETH EDITION)
P Wallis, K McCormac, P H Niekirk (eds)
London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2001
ISBN 0-421-82580-4; 2 vols; price £245.00
Reviewed by Jeremy Wheeler
If
you are interested in road traffic law, either as a practitioner or
as a student, Wilkinson's Road Traffic Offences is the author-
itative work, so when I was asked to review the twentieth edition
I was somewhat overawed. I can still remember as a young
constable struggling to find my way around a dog-eared copy of
the seventh edition in 1978 (of course I should have been using
the ninth edition, but that was kept under lock and key in the
Superintendent's office, the eighth similarly protected by the
Traffic Sergeant!), so I have to declare an 'interest'. This second
edition since publication was taken over by Sweet &Maxwell
has lost none of its power to impress.
For those who come to it anew it is a two-volume work,
volume 1 being text and volume 2 containing sources, or cases
and materials. It defines and explains the current state of the law
at the time of publication; indeed, so authoritative has Wilk-
inson's become that in the case of DPP vMura Deva Bharat
(2000) it was held that Justices could take judicial notice of facts
contained within it. The format is user-friendly, providing clearly
laid-out information covering just about anything that the practi-
tioner or student is likely to want to know.
It
does this in a
chatty, witty style, which relieves the dryness of the subject. An
example of this is the passage in the preface speculating as to
why the legislators chose to replace the combination order with a
community punishment and rehabilitation order, as opposed to
community rehabilitation and punishment; the acronym speaks
for itself! Using flow charts and tables it makes even the more
complex areas of the law accessible. It describes definitions, case
law and legislation and the twentieth edition is updated to
include the Human Rights Act 1998, the Powers of Criminal
Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 and new breath-testing devices.
Building on previous editions it remains the leading refer-
ence on road traffic offences, both in and out of court, and it
deserves a place on the shelves of lawyers, students and Traffic
Officers. At £245, however, it is not a book that the average
bobby will be buying, although access to it is, to my mind,
The Police Journal, Volume 75 (2002) 187
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