The Principles of Legal Method in New Zealand, 4th edition

This is the fourth edition of Richard Scragg’s classic text The Principles of Legal Method in New Zealand.

The book is an essential learning tool for students who need to master the skills required for all courses in legal method taught at tertiary level in New Zealand. It introduces students to the fundamental concepts of legal method, and then, step by step, teaches them to work with these concepts in a practical way.  It starts out with an account of the general principles of the common law system and then provides a chapter by chapter account of: (i) how to understand and interpret substantive law (ie, case law and statute law), (ii) the way in which case law is built into a body of law, and (iii) how to acquire and apply the skills of case analysis, statutory interpretation, and reasoning by analogy.

The new edition extensively expands on tikanga as a source of New Zealand law.  It also incorporates case law and legislative developments since the previous edition was published in 2016.