Legal terminology need not be intimidating or obscure. This is the ideal introduction to the meaning of the core vocabulary which confronts anyone approaching the study of Law for the first time. It includes clear explanations of Latin words and phrases. The 2nd edition has been thoroughly updated and revised throughout.

Why do some rules have the status of law while others do not? Is law simply a matter of rules anyway? What is justice? Is there a duty to obey a law even if it is unjust? Should the law concern itself with the activities of consenting adults in private? Legal Theory asks questions such as these, discusses topical issues such as animal rights and assisted suicide, and explains some of the answers which legal theorists have given from Ancient Greece to the present day.

Legal Method commonly refers to a set of techniques used to analyse, handle sources and apply the law and to determine the appropriate weight that should be accorded to different sources of law.

This text assumes no prior knowledge of the subject matter and makes its content accessible by clarity of expression rather than by dilution of content. In addition to more conventional sources, writers as varied as Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope and T. S. Eliot are cited.