Innocent to expert in one leap

Media Law & Human Rightsby Andrew Nicol QC, Gavin Millar QC & Andrew SharlandBlackstone, 29.95Amber Melville-Brown

We've all got a book in us, so they say, and it seems none more so at present than media lawyers.This is a reasonably priced, handy paperback, well-designed for its intended audience - it is not only 'aimed at practitioners in the media field, but it is hoped that it will be of interest to students of media law and human rights law'.The book is written in a fairly formal, yet not too pompous style (unusual for a collection of barristers?), in well-organised chapters.

It takes the reader through the jurisprudence of the European Court and its interaction with media law.Before reading this, one might know nothing about human rights law and media law, how they are dealt with by the court or indeed how the court works.However, with merely a dip into its pages you would be well enough versed to impress at a fashionable dinner party; with a more detailed reading, to write a decent college paper; and with a thorough consideration, to advise clients.The chapters range from a basic but useful introduction to the two most talked-about themes of media law today - freedom of expression and privacy - and go on to address how they were dealt with before and after the incorporation of the European Convention of Human Rights.There is a section on how to make a complaint to Strasbourg, and separate sections dealing with the various topics which could lead to such a complaint, such as defamation, privacy and confidential information, racial hatred, obscenity and blasphemy.

There are also sections on reporting the courts, elections and parliament, the licensing and regulation of the media, and national security.Of course, no human rights book would be complete without an appendix including the Human Rights Act 1998, and this book does not disappoint.

It also appends the convention.The authors magnanimously confirm that 'any errors that remain are ours'.

Given the wealth of both theoretical and practical knowledge that these practising lawyers have between them, I would be surprised if there were many.Amber Melville-Brown is head of defamation at London firm Finers Stephens Innocent