The Oxford University Press Very Short Introduction series is nearing its 200th volume and Raymond Wacks, emeritus professor of law and legal theory at the University of Hong Kong, has been given the challenging task of adding law to a collection which already includes Kafka, De Sade, feminism and the Celts. Perhaps it is the sheer magnitude of the task of compressing the law, not only the law of the UK but also that of a variety of other legal systems, into fewer than 180 pages that has kept it so far down the list.

Wacks realises his problem immediately: ‘The notorious prolixity and obscurity of the law may suggest that any attempt to condense even its rudiments is an undertaking of Utopian, if not quixotic proportions’. His aim is to ‘encourage curiosity about the intriguing nature of law, and promote further reflection upon and exploration into the central role it plays in our lives’. Not content with looking at the ‘Western secular legal tradition’, he also takes sideways glances as Islamic, customary and mixed systems.

Wacks starts out by looking at the law’s roots from the Hammurabian codes, working his way through ancient Greece and Rome to Justinian, on to Napoleonic and to the Germanic BGB, before defining and distinguishing common and civil law. Then it is on to the theorists – Bentham and Hobbes and religious law, Hindu, Islamic, Talmudic and so forth. It is easy enough to see where he is going but, for the layman, by now there are probably too many balls in the air at the same time.

He spends a good deal of time on law and morality, especially euthanasia, looking at the English case of Anthony Bland in detail and contrasting it with the law in the Netherlands. Indeed, this and other cases, such as that of the McDonald’s scalding coffee case and, of course, those of Mrs Carlill and of the Scottish snail, are the most entertaining sections.

He does not appear overly keen on juries, citing the Rodney King and OJ Simpson cases as examples of their unreliability, but then he balances things up by looking at biased judges. Wigs naturally get a mention but, because of the vast scope of his material, heads and such related topics are necessarily merely scratched rather than properly rifled.

Once he has mentioned, say, Canada in relation to jury trials, one wonders what the position is in other jurisdictions but, as he points out, there is an extensive further reading for those who want to look at things in greater detail. There are nice little breakouts, with a timely analysis of the Floridian case of Gideon and his right to counsel.

Finally, Wacks has a look at the directions in which the law is going with regard to surveillance and biometrics, copyright and animals. There is also a neat if not comprehensive index. Readers may struggle with the first few pages but, if they persevere, after that it is all plain sailing – or rather reading – which well justifies Wacks’ little book’s inclusion in the series.

James Morton is a former criminal law specialist solicitor and now a freelance journalist