Public Law Directions (2nd edn) by Anne Dennett

Public Law Directions (2nd edn) by Anne Dennett is the latest textbook for Constitutionals and Administrative Law, published in 2021. The Directions series introduces legal subjects for those reading them for the first time, making great introductory books for any student approaching a new topic or even for more in-depth revision as a second textbook to read. Public Law Directions is a very clear textbook for any students studying constitutional and administrative law as part of a qualifying law degree (LLB) in England and Wales.

Dennett's textbook, like many of the textbooks in the Directions series, provides a holistic introduction into both parts of public law; constitutional law and administrative law, breaking it down for students to study this strange topic and covering all the major areas of the Constitutional and Administrative law syllabus, including constitutions and how they develop, features and sources of constitutions, Brexit, Rule of Law, Separation of powers, the three organs of state, administrative law procedures including judicial review and human rights to name just a few topics covered in this book.

I really liked this textbook as it is written in some of the clearest language out of all the textbooks I have read this year, and although there are times when the language could be a bit clearer, these times are in the minority. Part of this clarity is due to restricting each chapter to the most essential information and arguments from academics and others in this field, which also leads to chapters which are not too short nor too long, which is great for students of law who may prefer shorter chapters and may find it harder to read longer chapters as featured in other constitutional and administrative law textbooks. I also liked the case deep dives throughout the book, summary sections at the end of each section within the chapter instead of a summary at the end of each chapter and then questions featured at the end. I also liked the further reading sections which signpost students to books and journal articles, and websites which are relevant to the particular chapter.

Public law is very much linked to politics, and this book was very good at using real-life examples throughout. This was particularly the case in the chapters on human rights in action, which really made this topic much more interesting, especially in terms of how it links with the real world. This was also the case for the chapter on Brexit which has been one of the most significant topics in the area of constitutional and administrative law in recent times. Due to the nature of this subject, I would argue it is essential to include current, up-to-date and real-life examples in this subject, as otherwise, students may lose both interest and insight into why this area of the law is so relevant to any legal professional.

There are a few things that I either didn't like or that could be improved about this book, one of these having already been covered in terms of clarity in some areas of the book. I would not consider this point a major problem. It would have been nice if there was a summary at the end of each section of a chapter, an overall summary at the end of each chapter, and maybe even a table of key cases for those chapters. I would have also liked to have seen more relevant examples throughout this book because although this was achieved to an outstanding level in the human rights chapters, sadly, it was lacking in some of the earlier chapters. This was also the case for deep dives of key cases. There could have been more of these earlier on in the book. Finally, in the human rights in action chapter, Dennett seems to have gone slightly off topic by discussing the tort of misuse of private information in relation to human rights. Although this is relevant to this area of the law, the level of detail which Dennett went into was entirely unnecessary as it was the level of detail one could expect from a tort law textbook or revision 

guide. Therefore, this area, in particular, could have been covered in much less detail.

Altogether, I rate this book 5 stars, making it an outstanding textbook on the subject of Constitutional and Administrative law, which is relevant for any students undertaking a qualifying law degree in England and Wales. This is a somewhat unusual subject in a law degree, but Dennett covers the subject with amazing clarity and detail, which ensures the student really understands the content. Understanding is aided through the use of both relevant cases and real-world examples, which also help students develop a deeper appreciation of the subject and just how interesting it is. I thoroughly recommend this textbook for any law students studying public law.