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01 November 2013
Issue: 7582 / Categories: Features
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Book review: Smith & Wood’s Employment Law

"There cannot be many textbooks amenable to a read over a cup of tea. This is a rare and illuminating exception" 

Authors: Ian Smith & Aaron Baker
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199664191
Price: £35.99

Employment law is like a fairground dodgem car. One moment you are moving smoothly and then you are thumped unexpectedly and lose control. You take a deep breath, adjust to the new direction and off you go again. And thump. No area of law is so volatile.

The latest Smith & Wood is ostensibly a student textbook. I suggest that every employment lawyer would learn something useful here. The beauty of this book is that it presents a panoramic overview of the subject. Understandably, as with fashion, everyone wants to be aware of the very latest trends. The potential danger is that older relevant authorities are forgotten. Labour law has mixed parentage. Common law and statutory measures combined to create a forced and sometimes awkward mixed marriage. 

Despite the volatility I have described, there are some authorities which

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NEWS
Talk of a reserved ‘Welsh seat’ on the Supreme Court is misplaced. In NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC explains that the Constitutional Reform Act treats ‘England and Wales’ as one jurisdiction, with no statutory Welsh slot
The government’s plan to curb jury trials has sparked ‘jury furore’. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke, partner at Hill Dickinson, says the rationale is ‘grossly inadequate’
A year after the $1.5bn Bybit heist, crypto fraud is booming—but so is recovery. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Holloway, founder and CEO of M2 Recovery, warns that scams hit at least $14bn in 2025, fuelled by ‘pig butchering’ cons and AI deepfakes
After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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