BENNION ON STATUTORY INTERPRETATION

FB on the Fifth Edition and beyond

Introductory Note by FB

I thought it might be helpful and interesting to provide this ongoing commentary relating to the Fifth Edition for users of the book and others. It is a less formal addition to the details given elsewhere on this Website [Links] and is updated from time to time as the need arises.

Publication of Fifth Edition

The Fifth Edition was published by LexisNexis on 25 March 2008. The publication date was delayed by production difficulties on the part of the publishers, and also by my last-minute decision that it was high time the work was equipped with a bibliography (which of course I had to prepare myself, with no extra remuneration).

In February this year LexisNexis sent me a present of flowers and Champagne to mark the Diamond Jubilee of my connection with the firm and its predecessors. This began in 1948 when, on graduating from Oxford, I took a job with Butterworths on Halsbury’s Statutes as a prelude to studying for the Bar examinations.

I found work on preparing the Fifth Edition for over a year very onerous, even with the help of the two Assistant Editors. This included creating the seventy-page index. I’m not sure whether using a computer increased or lessened the pain of this. At least I avoided the worse fate that befell me when completing the Fourth Edition of the work in 2001, when my health broke down altogether and the index had to be prepared by someone else. I much prefer to do the index myself, because it is a vital part of a work like this.