A system of law is just and effective only if people know, at least in outline, by what laws they are bound, are readily able to discover an authoritative text of those laws and can properly understand the text once obtained. For a number of reasons, and in a number of ways, our substantive law is so voluminous and complicated that no citizen could really be expected to know more than a fraction of the law that applies to him or her, despite the fact that in the course of almost every enterprise in which a person is involved during a normal day, from driving a car on the road to using a computer at home, he or she becomes insensibly bound by a large number of laws in which failure to comply with could result in financial liability or loss of liberty.
It has always been, and remains, possible to purchase Queen’s Printer’s copies of Acts and statutory instruments from bookshops. In addition to that, it is now possible to obtain free electronic access to the text of all Acts, statutory instruments and devolved legislation from the website of the Office of Public Sector Information. Superficially, therefore, it could be said that the UK citizen has good access to all sources of legislation.
