The book is reviewed by Glanville Williams` famous book on learning law. Technology has allowed learning to become a more dynamic process As stated on the This entry was uploaded by: [University of Cambridge] on: 04 November 2014, at: 02:22 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Record Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, United Kingdom The Law Teacher Imprint, with author instructions and subscription information: www.tandfonline.com/loi/ralt20 A.T.H. Smith, Glanville Williams: Learning the Law a b Prince Moses George Duku & Jessica Guth a Principal Partner at M.G. Duku & Associates, Nigeria b Bradford University Law School Online Published: 31 Jan 2014. To cite this article : Prince Moses George Duku & Jessica Guth (2014) A.T.H. Smith, Glanville Williams: Learning the Law, The Law Teacher, 48:1, 133-135, DOI: 10.1080/03069400.2013.875699 To link to this article: dx.doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2013.875699 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR THE ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all information (the „Content“) in publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents and licensors make no representations or warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for any purpose of the Content. All opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors and are not the views of Taylor & Francis or are not endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the content should not be considered reliable and should be independently verified using primary sources of information.
Taylor and Francis will not be liable for any losses, suits, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages and other liabilities arising directly or indirectly from the use of, related to or arising from the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any reproduction, redistribution, redistribution, loan, sublicense, systematic delivery or substantial or systematic distribution in any form whatsoever to any third party is expressly prohibited by [University of Cambridge] at 02:22 04 November 2014. Terms and conditions of access and use can be found at www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions The Law Teacher 133 Downloaded from [University of Cambridge] at 02:22 04 November 2014 last minute. The idea of an audit guide is to help audits by providing the most important facts rather than going into too much detail. In summary, we therefore believe that the Nutshells and Nutcases series contains the right level of information for an audit-oriented audit guide, but that the information needs to be presented and structured in a different way – a way that recognizes that what we want at this point is small information that can be easily memorized. We are aware that the topics we cover here reflect our learning preferences and may differ from the preferences of other students. Since each student`s learning process is different, others may find the existence of practical clues unnecessary and longer paragraphs ideal. Marilyna Vrontza, Tahmina Begum and Sanna Azar Bradford University Law School [email protected] © 2014, Marilyna Vrontza, Tahmina Begum and Sanna Azar dx.doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2013.875700 Glanville Williams: Learning the Law, by A.T.H. Smith, London, Sweet & Maxwell, 15th edition, 2013, 290 pp., £19.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-0-41402823-4 The first and big attraction for me to review this book is that it highlights why I came to the UK to study law, rooted in a fact-finding campaign for legal knowledge with two goals: first, a better understanding of the dialectic of British colonial intervention and the implications of the introduction of the system.
British common law law. Nigeria; and secondly, the hope that the benefit of my successful university legal education in England would be useful to me in bringing more balanced legal perspectives to the transformative government administration upon my return to Nigeria. A second reason for my choice of book is related to a reasoned answer to one of my questions at a conference, in which it was stated that the (customary) laws of some other jurisdictions cannot be considered laws at all. Therefore, in principle, I object to the words „the law“ in the title. I believe it is the decisive cultural and political compass of direction that guides the author`s entire thesis: that English law is the philosophical electromagnet to which all legal laws and knowledge should be drawn. A.T.H. Smith seeks to dominate, and perhaps advance, English law as a global commons, a way of thinking similar to the political-economic philosophy that inspires and drives colonialism. Having said this in his preface to the book, its content becomes tendentious English in value and vision. In fact, the author becomes rather succinct in his bias, for example when he ostensibly argues that „justice is law in the sense that it is part of English law… (p. 23).
I respectfully think that Justice Downloaded from [University of Cambridge] at 02:22 04 November 2014 134 Learning Resources Reviews (which may go to other nomenclatures in other jurisdictions) is a law because of its ethical substance for justice and not because of its admirable documentation in the geographical term England in the UK. Moreover, the author`s „Divisions of the Law“ (S. 1-25) clearly any discussion of a jurisdiction other than the English legal system. Chapter 2 of the book, which discusses the mechanism of science and refers specifically to the „pronunciation of case names,“ seems to be a „civilizing“ mission of the author rather than a prerequisite for legal education. It does not take into account the idiolectic inflections of these people who are not English. My former president, General Yakubu Gowon, came to the Military Academy in England with this name and returned to Nigeria, renamed „Jack“ Gowon, because his English teachers thought „Jack“ was better suited to the general idiolectic expression of English. The idea that in order to learn law, one must learn to pronounce English case names appropriately, for example, seems uncritical. I think that the knowledge of English jurisprudence for the culturally foreign student of English law has more to do with the logical coherence of the presentation of primacy in the context of the ordinary and subordinate courts of the common law legal system than with the perfection of diction in the correct pronunciation of English case names. which may have no relevance to linguistic use in non-English speaking legal systems. In Chapter 3 of the text, in which he talks about the European Union and its Parliament, the author intensifies his poignant Anglocentric cultural theme, noting that „the European Parliament .. is not at all like the mother of the Westminster parliaments“ (p. 55).
The rest of the text, which ranges from prescribed methods of study to technical terms, jurisprudential technique, interpretation of the law, problem elaboration, written examinations, pleadings and mock trials, legal research, and legal practice, confirms Smith`s English legal doctrines.
