It is six years since the last edition of this work was published. This is the longest gap in the history of the book and was due principally to the demands of a return to full-time teaching and administration. Those concerned at Oxford University Press have been patient and encouraging. The flow of new material has, if anything, increased. There have been particularly important decisions of the House of Lords/Supreme Court in RTS Flexible Systems v Muller; Chartbrook v Persimmon; Office of Fair Trading v Abbey National; Stone and Rolls v Moore Stephens; The Golden Victory; and The Achilleas and of the Privy Council in Macleod v Macleod. There have of course been many other interesting cases. For me a major event since the last edition has been the death of Brian Simpson before he was able to review Chapter 1. Brian and I were colleagues at Oxford long ago and indeed for several years we and our families shared the same house. He will be greatly missed. Professor David Ibbetson has kindly reviewed the text of this chapter. Professor Brenda Sufrin has continued to devote her expertise in competition law to the revision of what is now virtually the whole of Chapter 10 with the greatly reduced discussion of wagering contracts.

Since the publication of the last edition of this book in 2010, the criminal appellate courts have been busy, as evidenced by the numerous recent decisions referred to. In total, around 100 cases have been added to the text some of them are listed overleaf. Provisions from four pieces of legislation have also been incorporated. It follows from these developments, in particular the case law, that there are considerable changes in the text. No chapter has been unaff ected. As with previous editions, this book is designed for use on undergraduate degree courses, graduate diploma in law courses and similar courses. I have continued the practice of end-of-chapter further reading lists. Th ese contain recommended reading of a general nature about the contents of each chapter. Further reading in respect of particular cases or specifi c points still appears in the footnotes in each chapter. I wish to thank all those who have assisted me in various ways. In particular, I would like to thank my wife, Rachel, for her assistance with the manuscript, John Carroll, Heather Smyth, Elissa Connor and Carolyn Fox for their help in the production of the book, and the publishers for compiling tables of cases and statutes and the index. For such imperfections that remain, I am solely responsible. I have tried to summarise and explain the law as it was reported on 16 December 2011.

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