English Legal System

This book aims to provide a clear and comprehensive explanation of the English Legal System and how it works in practice. It considers the main areas of the English Legal System in practice - such as the sources of law, the legal professions, lay partcipation in the legal system, and legal aid and advice. In doing so it discusses the implications of recent developments in the field, including the new transfer for trial proceedings plea and direction hearings, preparatory hearings and the Criminal Appeals Act 1995 - all dramatic changes rapidly being introduced into the criminal justice system; as well as the implications of Lord Woolf's Civil Justice Review for the future of the civil justice system and the new proposals for legal aid and advice.