The Student Room Group

Anyone read any of those law introduction books?

Anyone to add some meat to their personal statement or to see whether they wanted to study law at uni or not read any of those books that are designed to introduce you to the law and some its ideas?

If you have - can u list them on here please? Cheers coz i'd like to read some before my interviews to say i've done some 'wider reading' and so i've got some ammo during interviews

cheers
Reply 1
or any links/links to uni wbesites that suggest some to read? I remember the lse guy at the open day suggesting a couple but i didn;t take them down
I've bought 'The Law Machine' by Marcel Berlins and Clare Dyer. It's pretty good, nice little introduction to it all.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Law-Machine-Marcel-Berlins/dp/0140287566/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/202-5252050-0868616?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193832683&sr=8-1
Reply 3
cheers
Reply 4
Books that I often see recommended are:

Geoffrey Rivlin - Understanding The Law
Glanville Williams - Learning The Law
Marcel Berlins - The Law Machine

I wouldn't recommend you buy more than one of them. They'll both broadly cover the same thing. I have The Law Machine but it's all pretty basic stuff that I already knew from A-level Law. I haven't read the other two but I've heard good things. The Rivlin one is supposed to be quite amusing. I'd probably go for that one if I were you.

If you already have some familiarity with the English legal system then these books probably won't be of that much use. Consider dipping into something like Hart - The Concept Of Law or Dworkin - Law's Empire for a more philosophical view of the law. I would warn you though that you'll really need some familiarity with the law to really make much sense of them.

Another option might be to read something like Kennedy - Just Law. It's about human rights liberty and although it's a little bit out of date now it will provide you with a good insight to the various excursions that Nu Labour has made into our civil liberties.

None of this is really necessary to put down in your application. The best piece of advice I can give you is to read a broadsheet newspaper every day (Times, Telegraph, Grauniad, Independent) or maybe something like The Economist in order to keep up to date with current affairs and stuff.

Don't bother reading anything really substantive on the law. You'll look like an idiot if you go into an interview and starting quoting Treitel on Contract left, right, and centre.

:smile:
Reply 5
Heh, cheers for that. Yeh i wasn't planning to give a major speech by some law authority or whatever. I was asking because on my Cambridge SAQ they're asking what i've done to pursue my interest in 'Law' outside of school. I know a couple of people that have read some of these introductory books so i thought i might aswell so i can put it down on my form.