Download this VSI Reading Guide as an Adobe PDF (28 KB)

Questions for Thought and Discussion

• What are the distinctive features of law in the West?



• What are the main distinctions between civil and common law?



• What are the main functions of law?



• What are the principal sources of law?



• Distinguish between public and private law



• Why is Donoghue v Stevenson such an important case?



• What are the main differences between contract and tort?



• What is constitutional law?



• Must law be moral?



• What arguments are generally raised against abortion? Are they persuasive?



• Should assisted suicide be a criminal offence?



• Is torture justified to prevent terrorism?



• How does the law protect human rights?



• What is natural law?



• Define a court. How might courts change in the future?



• Should the jury be abolished for criminal trials?



• What is the rule of law?



• Can the law reduce poverty?

Other Books by Raymond Wacks

• Philosophy of Law: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2014)



• Privacy: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 2015)



• Understanding Jurisprudence: An Introduction to Legal Theory 4th edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015)



• Privacy (2 vols) The International Library of Essays in Law and Legal Theory (London: Dartmouth; New York: New York University Press, 1993) Vol I: The Concept of Privacy. Vol II: Privacy and the Law.



• Law, Morality, and the Private Domain (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2000)



• Privacy and Media Freedom (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)

Further Reading

• John N. Adams and Roger Brownsword Understanding Law, 4th edition (Sweet and Maxwell, 2006)



• Andrew Clapham, Human Rights: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2007)



• H. L. A. Hart, The Concept of Law, ed. P. A. Bulloch and J. Raz, 3rd edn, with an introduction by L. Green (Clarendon Press, 2012)



• James A. Holland and Julian S. Webb,Learning Legal Rules: A Student’s Guide to Legal Method and Reasoning, 8th edition (Oxford University Press, 2013)



• Elizabeth Martin and Jonathan Law (eds), Dictionary of Law, 7th edn (Oxford Quick Reference, Oxford University Press, 2013)



• Raymond Wacks, Philosophy of Law: A Very Short Introduction 2nd edn (Oxford University Press, 2014)



• Raymond Wacks, Understanding Jurisprudence: An Introduction to Legal Theory 4th edn (Oxford University Press, 2015)