Law: A Very Short Introduction

Law is at the heart of every society, protecting rights, imposing duties, and establishing a framework for the conduct of almost all social, political, and economic activity. Despite this, the law often seems a highly technical, perplexing mystery, with its antiquated and often impenetrable jargon, obsolete procedures, and endless stream of complex statutes and legislation.

In this Very Short Introduction Raymond Wacks introduces the major branches of the law, describing what lawyers do, and how courts operate, and considers the philosophy of law and its pursuit of justice, freedom, and equality. Wacks locates the discipline in our contemporary world, considering the pressures of globalization and digitalisation and the nature of the law in our culture of threatened security and surveillance. In this new edition, Wacks considers a number of social and political events that have had an impact on the law, including the COVID-19 pandemic, surveillance, and the killing of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

1. Law's roots
2. Law's branches
3. Law and morality
4. Courts
5. Lawyers
6. The future of law
Further reading
Index