Whilst the popularity of tax law at undergraduate has declined since Easson's original sourcebook Cases and Materials on Revenue Law in the 1970s, the subject has retained its cachet, and its challenges! The original, and subsequent (Salter and Kerr, 1990), editions offered students expert guidance for avoiding (rather than evading) the hazards of tax statutes, cases and policy documents; and for some students it obviated a library visit! Used in combination with one of the many good student textbooks, those earlier editions could supply enough material to clothe an otherwise skeletal essay. But over the last decade or so, legal resources have changed. Digitalised cases reports, web access to modern statutes, electronic alerts (might the author suggest that their collective noun be "a jam") and normative electronic publication on a global scale allow students to work independently of location, hard copy books, and the physical law library. Given that a student can remotely access most of the materials cited in textbooks, the rationale and purpose of a text such as this may be questioned. Of course, the answer continues to lie where it always has been. Students need guidance to distinguish the important from the trivia, the relevant from the distracting, and the essential from the excessive.

The authors are all well known, experienced and respected teachers of tax law. Consequently, the text offers a carefully and confidently chosen selection of the topics likely to be addressed in an undergraduate tax programme and covers them in a fairly traditional order. Of particular interest were the earlier chapters exploring more difficult areas of "the Characteristics of a Good Tax System", "Aspects of the Administration of the Tax System", "How Cases are Decided" and "Taxation and Human Rights" which have interest for those studying outside mainstream tax law. Chapters commence with a few paragraphs of context and explanation before moving to extracts from original materials; and further commentary is integrated with the extracts of materials to contextualise and give meaning to extracts. To an undergraduate, the quantity of material contained in over 700 pages may seem daunting, but not in comparison to a single Finance Act! This careful selection allows and encourages the student to focus on the key points of a decision or report in an informed and effective way; but the corollary is that this balance affords only restricted space for explanation. Thus, the text should be seen as supplement, and not a substitution, for a separate textbook... However, used with a textbook (such as the same publisher's Revenue Law: Principles and Practice, edited by Natalie Lee, it offers an invaluable resource.

Student Law Review, 2008