get longer, without becoming correspondingly any clearer or more comprehensible may, to some seem a damning indictment of the common law drafter's fixation on detail and the single instance over general ization and broad principle That the Directives have imposed, or are imposing, substa This assumption presupposes that UK law was previously r at least passably tolerable, and that the Directives have changed, and are continuing to change, all that. All aspects of that assumption are debatable, but there are certainly instances, as the Term Directive(1993)and other Directives suggest, where the argument that UK law has been improved by their imposition is hard to sustain. But, of course, whether the law or some change to it is good or bad is itself a highly contentious issue, for goodness or badness depends very much on ones viewpoint In any event, a more general response is that bad law is bad law, whatever its origin or basis. If UK copyright law is in some respects bad(as the editors of Copinger fairly contend), then improvement should be welcomed and embraced. The fact that the improvement may originate from Brussels, Westminster, Berne or Marrakesh, or that its inspiration may trace back to Kant Locke, Diderot or the US Trade Commissioner, is interesting geographically and genealogically but seems otherwise irrelevant That good law is being imported but is being badly integrated into UK law. At its simplest level, this contention points the finger less at the content of the European law than at how that law has been locally implemented. The point is graphically underscored by the UK implementation of the European Patent Convention 1973 through the Patents Act 1977(UK). The result has been thought sufficiently unsatisfactory for the Uk patent judges to have decided to esort wherever possible, for this and for reasons of European uniformity, to the language and layout of the Convention in preference to that of the Patent Act itself.(9) That apart, the sentiment engages other less obvious ideas: among them, aesthetics, the rule of law structural awkwardness, and legal complexity. On examination, only the last of these issues suggests any serious difficulty in integrating civilian and common law approaches Aesthetics. It may be aesthetically displeasing and time-consuming-not to mention intellectually unsettling-to wade through the mass of accretions made by EU-implementing legislation and regulation to the CDPa if the objective is to gain an understanding of the current state of the law. Commercial compilations and commentaries make access easier but do not entirely undermine the point that the primary law is fast becoming less and less coherent and comprehensible to both professional users and the public That point, however, has less to do with the nature of the law imported than with the means taken y drafters to implement the law, and with the lag time in issuing regular comprehensive consolidated up-to-date versions of the law. Rule of Law. The last point leads to a more serious constitutional issue involving the rule of law The public, especially that part to which a law is particularly addressed, is entitled to clearget longer, without becoming correspondingly any clearer or more comprehensible may, to some, seem a damning indictment of the common law drafter's fixation on detail and the single instance over generalization and broad principle. • That the Directives have imposed, or are imposing, substantively bad law. This assumption presupposes that UK law was previously good or at least passably tolerable, and that the Directives have changed, and are continuing to change, all that. All aspects of that assumption are debatable, but there are certainly instances, as the Term Directive (1993) and other Directives suggest, where the argument that UK law has been improved by their imposition is hard to sustain. But, of course, whether the law or some change to it is good or bad is itself a highly contentious issue, for goodness or badness depends very much on one's viewpoint. In any event, a more general response is that bad law is bad law, whatever its origin or basis. If UK copyright law is in some respects bad (as the editors of Copinger fairly contend), then improvement should be welcomed and embraced. The fact that the improvement may originate from Brussels, Westminster, Berne or Marrakesh, or that its inspiration may trace back to Kant, Locke, Diderot or the US Trade Commissioner, is interesting geographically and genealogically, but seems otherwise irrelevant. • That good law is being imported but is being badly integrated into UK law. At its simplest level, this contention points the finger less at the content of the European law than at how that law has been locally implemented. The point is graphically underscored by the UK implementation of the European Patent Convention 1973 through the Patents Act 1977 (UK). The result has been thought sufficiently unsatisfactory for the UK patent judges to have decided to resort wherever possible, for this and for reasons of European uniformity, to the language and layout of the Convention in preference to that of the Patent Act itself.(9) That apart, the sentiment engages other less obvious ideas: among them, aesthetics, the rule of law, structural awkwardness, and legal complexity. On examination, only the last of these issues suggests any serious difficulty in integrating civilian and common law approaches: Aesthetics. It may be aesthetically displeasing and time-consuming - not to mention intellectually unsettling - to wade through the mass of accretions made by EU-implementing legislation and regulation to the CDPA if the objective is to gain an understanding of the current state of the law. Commercial compilations and commentaries make access easier but do not entirely undermine the point that the primary law is fast becoming less and less coherent and comprehensible to both professional users and the public. That point, however, has less to do with the nature of the law imported than with the means taken by drafters to implement the law, and with the lag time in issuing regular comprehensive consolidated up-to-date versions of the law. Rule of Law. The last point leads to a more serious constitutional issue involving the rule of law. The public, especially that part to which a law is particularly addressed, is entitled to clear