The English Legal System

Since the fourth edition of this book in 1999, the English legal system has undergone major and comprehensive changes. The Access to Justice Act 1999 has led to the establishment of the Legal Services Commission and the Community Legal Service, and has re-drawn the legal landscape. The 1998 Civil Procedure Rules came into force in 1999 and have been amended and updated 21 times - the rules revolutionize the way the people make civil claims and the way in which the courts deal with them. The Human Rights Act 1998 came into force in October 2000, and has had ramifications for virtually all aspects of law, and thus how the legal system operates. To prepare it, the judiciary underwent the most comprehensive and detailed formal training in its entire thousand-year history.