In this book Neil Andrews does non-English lawyers a great service: he gives us an authoritative, digestible and—and at the same time—critical guide to the new civil justice in England and Wales. For a dozen years we have watched—sometimes puzzled—as the queen of common law systems has transformed itself in ways that we have not seen heretofore and to an extent that England has not experienced for a long time. Led by the ‘Woolf reforms’ of 1999, the metamorphosis has included, in addition to substantial changes in civil procedure, the introduction of the Human Rights Act of 1998 (entered into force 2000), the establishment of a Ministry of Justice (2007) and the abolition of the House of Lords (Judicial) and creation of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (began business 2009). Neil Andrews is one of England’s best known proceduralists and author of one of its best known treatises on civil procedure. He, as well as anyone could, guides readers through the thickets and hedges of England’s reforms to the essential elements of the reforms. He helps readers learn conveniently what is new and what is old: what is system-shaking and is therefore especially worthy of foreign attention. Such a guide is particularly needed by American lawyers and law reformers: Americans are accustomed to looking to England for ideas for the American system. Even before the Woolf reforms came into effect, some American observers ascribed a ‘Continental Character’ to English law distinct from America’s common law. We all wonder what the effects of the predominantly civil law European Union will be on its premier common law system.