  In 1994 Lazard proposed an improved method for cylindrical algebraic
decomposition (CAD). The method comprised a simplified projection operation
together with a generalized cell lifting (that is, stack construction)
technique. For the proof of the method's validity Lazard introduced a new
notion of valuation of a multivariate polynomial at a point. However a gap in
one of the key supporting results for his proof was subsequently noticed. In
the present paper we provide a complete validity proof of Lazard's method. Our
proof is based on the classical parametrized version of Puiseux's theorem and
basic properties of Lazard's valuation. This result is significant because
Lazard's method can be applied to any finite family of polynomials, without any
assumption on the system of coordinates. It therefore has wider applicability
and may be more efficient than other projection and lifting schemes for CAD.
