This work: presents a contextual overview of the English legal system; provides the groundwork for a critical understanding of legal institutions, processes and materials; places the study of law within a broader framework of inquiry focusing on the evaluation and explanation of legal decision making at all levels; examines the civil justice system after Woolf; looks at the impact of the Human Rights Act; analyses the globalisation of law; sets a distinctive manifesto for legal education that is in line with the ACLEC emphasis on understanding (rather than passive role learning) as the key to the initial stage of legal education.