Preface

The ‘Unlocking the Law’ series on its creation was hailed as an entirely new style of undergraduate law textbooks and many of its groundbreaking features have subsequently been emulated in other publications. However, many student texts are still very prose dense and have little in the way of interactive materials to help a student feel his or her way through the course of study on a given module.

The purpose of the series has always been to try to make learning each subject area more accessible by focusing on actual learning needs, and by providing a range of different supporting materials and features.

All topic areas are broken up into manageable sections with a logical progression and extensive use of headings and numerous sub-headings as well as an extensive contents list and index. Each book in the series also contains a variety of flow charts, diagrams, key facts charts and summaries to reinforce the information in the body of the text. Diagrams and flow charts are particularly useful because they can provide a quick and easy understanding of the key points, especially when revising for examinations. Key facts charts not only provide a quick visual guide through the subject but are also useful for revision.

Many cases are separated out for easy access and all cases have full citation in the text as well as the table of cases for easy reference. The emphasis of the series is on depth of understanding much more than breadth of detail. For this reason each text also includes key extracts from judgments where appropriate. Quotations from academic comment in journal articles and leading texts are also included to give some insight into the academic debate on complex or controversial areas. In both cases these are highlighted and removed from the body of the text.

Finally the books also include much formative ‘self-testing’, with a variety of activities ranging through subject specific comprehension, application of the law and a range of other activities to help the student gain a good idea of his or her progress in the course. Appendices with guides on completing essay style questions and legal problem solving supplement and support this interactivity. Besides this a sample essay plan is added at the end of most chapters.

A feature of the most recent editions is the inclusion of some case extracts from the actual law reports which not only provide more detail on some of the important cases but also help to support students in their use of law reports by providing a simple commentary and also activities to cement understanding.

Employment law is a massive area and relevant to a much larger readership than many areas of law. Many students on vocational courses such as HND/HNC and professional courses such as CIPD are called on to study discrete areas of employment law. Besides this of course the law is important to all those who are themselves employed, those who employ and all those who advise either employers or employees. Employment law is also an exciting area because it constantly changes and is a mix of common law and statutory principles as well as being heavily influenced by EU law. It is also a contentious area since there is continuous political input in statute which reflects the attitudes of the government of the day.

The book is designed to cover all of the main topic areas on undergraduate and professional employment law syllabuses and to help provide a full understanding of each.

I hope that you will gain as much enjoyment in reading about employment law, and testing your understanding with the various activities in the book as I have had in writing it, and that you gain much enjoyment and interest from your study of the law.

The law is stated as I believe it to be on 1 April 2013.