Month: July 2007

Family law is a mixture of common law principles and legislation.  It can therefore be difficult to find out the answer quickly without a good reference text.  Thankfully, Family Law by Jonathan Herring provides just that: a clear, concise and intriguing account of family law.

The key feature of the text is its layout.  The main legislative provisions and cases have shaded backgrounds which allows the material to be quickly located.  Other fantastic features are the debate, hot topics and key statistic sections.  These are included at appropriate places to allow the reader to place the material into context.  These also stimulate debate and encourage the reader to question the main issues.

The text is written in an enjoyable and thought provoking manner.  It is both academic and practical.  The issues are given the relevant weight whilst, at the same time, written in a straight-forward manner which is appealing to a practitioner.  The text is also thought provoking and encourages the reader to undertake additional reading.

Like many of Pearson Education’s texts, it is linked to an online companion website.  At the time of writing, there are a number of additional thinking questions and useful website links which adds considerable value to the text.  Although not available at the time of writing, a new feature to the text is Pearson Longman’s Case Navigator which sounds like a fantastic feature.

This is an excellent text.  The material is both clear and comprehensive.  It also has a fantastic amount of added value with a companion website providing updates to the text and the Case Navigator.  At a little over £30, I recommend this to anyone interest in family law.

Reviewed on 28 July 2007