Product Description

Uniquely comprehensive in its coverage, this textbook examines the English legal system and main areas of substantive law including contract, tort, criminal, property and employment law in one volume.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16762 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 936 pages

From the Back Cover

“Here is a famous textbook … if I was stranded on a desert island and allowed one legal text, it would have to be this favourite volume”

                                    Review of the previous edition – The Law Teacher, 2005

Now in its fifteenth edition, Smith and Keenan’s English Law has firmly established itself as the all-purpose introduction to English law.  Uniquely comprehensive in its coverage, the textbook examines the English legal system and main areas of substantive law including contract, tort, criminal, property and employment law in one volume.

Key features:

-         closely cross-referenced casebook section allows students to read the facts and decisions of over 500 cases in depth

-         attractive, two colour text design that doesn’t overwhelm the student and allows easy navigation throughout the text

-         companion website containing regular legal updates and invaluable support for teachers in the form of an Instructor’s Manual

-         boxed examples citing relevant cases clearly distinguished from the main body of the text

The new edition has been brought fully up to date to include:

-         the Employment Act 2004, the Equality Act 2006, and the Work and Families Act 2006, the Age Discrimination Regulations and the Mental Capacity act 2006

-         developments in the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, including grievous bodily harm by transmission of sexually transmitted diseases

-         recent developments in tort law including the rule of joint vicarious liability and the Compensation Act 2006

-         the new offence of causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable adult and the changes to fitness to plead under the Domestic Crime and Victims Act 2004. 

-         considerable changes within the English Legal System, including the Constitutional Reform Act 2008 and the new rules pertaining to the legal profession and legal aid, changes in the judiciary, the new Special Advocate system in terrorist and other security cases, and the increased role of the Lord Chief Justice, Judicial Appointments Commission and judicial ombudsman

-         more material on all aspects of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 as it has come into force particularly in relation to sexual offences

-         case law developments in human rights, particularly in the area of privacy and a full update of employment case law.

 Denis Keenan is a Barrister, an experienced teacher and former Head of Department of Business Studies and Law. In addition to being author of a range of market-leading textbooks, he is also legal correspondent for Accountancy magazine and Editor of Accountants' Legal Service by Tottel Publishing.

About the Author
Denis Keenan Barrister and former Head of Department of Business Studies and Law.

Customer Reviews

Very good, contained everything I needed and more
I bought this book for a module I was doing on my first year undergraduate Economics course and found that this book contained all the information covered in this module.

The language is quite simple to understand and there are a lot of cases at the back to help illustrate certain points made, comparisons were sometimes made between cases. This was particularly good as during the exams we were meant to refer to relevant cases and to compare and contrast certain cases, this book did all that and also explained how the outcome was achieved.

I would strongly recommend this book if you are studying undergraduate law or a law module, if this is one of the books that appears on your reading list - get it.

From a teacher's perspective as a student text
Smith and Keenan is one of the classic law texts for just about any course below undergraduate level. It is comprehensive while being just short of complicated and forbidding. The case section at the back eliminates the need for a seperate case book. If students can be encouraged to read it they will be rewarded by the experience. Excellent value for money.

Book good, but needs more
I found the book good, but if you are doing undergrad you will need more to understand the cases and examples this book cites. I would recomend it for GCE level law, and advanced level to help the student learn the basics.