The Scottish Parliament: An Introduction (3rd Edition)
by Jean McFadden & Mark Lazarowicz
Published by LexisNexis

Review by Aidan O'Donnel, Senior Lecturer, Division of Law, Glasgow Caledonian University
Review from "The Firm" magazine

One of the positive things to emerge from devolution is the book by Jean McFadden and Mark Lazarowicz. Their book is now in its third edition. One of its first reviewers said: "I cannot praise this book too highly. It is extremely readable while packing a massive amount into 109 pages. A reader seeking a general understanding of how the Parliament will work could not do better than to buy 'The Scottish Parliament'." It is difficult to disagree.

The third edition has, of course, the advantage of having seen the Parliament in action over four years. This explains, in part at least, the book having grown to 157 pages. It is still, however, a compact, concise and easily accessible work that explains the workings and functions of the Parliament, dealing as it does with issues such as how it is elected, its powers, the law-making process, its relationship with local government, other public bodies and, of course, Westminster and the European Union.

There is a very clear explanation of the rationale and operation of Sewel motions, although it is unfair to focus on one particular topic. No doubt there will be more editions of this book, which is deserving of a wide leadership not only among those involved in politics and the law, but among all who have a stake in how Scotland is governed, and that is all of us.

Review from "Scottish Law Gazette"
Review by Phil Forte

The constitutional and political changes wrought by the Scotland Act 1998 have forced non Scottish legal academics to pay rather more attention to some Scottish aspects of UK Public law than hitherto. Another consequence of devolution in this context is the wealth of dedicated Scots Public law literature that it appears to have encouraged. In the last few months, Himsworth and O'Neill's Scotland's Constitution: Law & Practice, Munro's Public Law and the 3rd edition of McFadden & Lazarowicz's The Scottish Parliament have all appeared and a 2nd edition of Himsworth's Local Government law in Scotland is in the offing.

Previous editions of The Scottish Parliament - An Introduction, were highly praised and I do not demur in relation to the 3rd edition. For those not familiar with this book, it comprises twelve chapters, a brief glossary, further reading and the usual index. Tables and Cases, Statutes and Statutory instruments would have been welcome too although in fairness, this is not a strictly legal text and there are not all that many cases referred to despite the ample footnotes; additional tabular guidance on legislation would improve things, however. The book is easy to navigate and chapters deal with the background to devolution, the powers of the Parliament, elections and members, how it works, how it makes law, the Executive, relations with London, legal challenges to both the Parliament and the Executive, finances, (relations with) Local Government and Europe and the future.

The text is descriptive, informative, reflective and, above all, highly readable and the content is illuminated with a modicum of facts, figures and examples from experience and practice. Flow charts are used to explain the law making process. Tables of figures from the 2003 election are employed in an effort to demonstrate the machinations of regional seat allocation.

The book's easy style assists hugely in the imparting of a lot of key, if basic, information, knowledge and law. Doubtless, this book will be too basic for the very experienced or for in-depth research but it ought to be a 'must have' otherwise. Do you need the 3rd edition if you have the 1st, bearing in mind the price hike in the interval? Yes, if you want to be alerted to some key cases plus legislation like the Ethical Standards in Public Life etc (S) Act 2000 and the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003, the Kerley report and much more.