The Law Machine demystifies the procedures, customs and controversies of the English legal system.

Marcel Berlins and Clare Dyer explain and discuss how the system evolved and how it has been changing, the way it operates - including vivid descriptions of the trial process - and how lawyers work. At every stage they ask: is the English legal system as good as we have the right to expect?

Now completely revised and updated for this fifth edition, The Law Machine surveys recent developments in the workings of the machinery of justice and the outlook for the future. The authors show how the legal establishment has tried to adopt a more open, modern approach. At the same time, far-reaching and controversial changes to the system promise better access to justice for all, but will they achieve that aim?