Access to Justice

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Access to Justice

It might be thought that it requires a certain level of masochism for a legal aid practitioner to want to read a book which details the recent cuts to the justice system. Nonetheless, there are a growing number of recent publications that can be described as falling into the category of “misery lit for legal aid lawyers”. From Steve Hynes and Jon Robins’ concise but forceful 2009 polemic, The Justice Gap, and 2012 follow-up Austerity Justice, to the more recent publication of Access to Justice and Legal Aid by Asher Flynn, the spotlight is finally being shone on the effect of austerity on access to justice. The latest contribution to this growing sub-genre is Access to Justice: Beyond the Policies and Politics of Austerity.

(This article first appeared in the journal Public Law in April 2017)

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Lord Sumption and the Limits of the Law

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Lord Sumption and the Limits of the Law

Nobody could accuse Lord Sumption of ducking the big issues. They certainly don’t get much bigger than those he addressed in the 27th Sultan Azlan Shah Lecture, given in Kuala Lumpur, on 20 November 2013. His paper, entitled “The Limits of Law”, sought nothing less than a redefinition of the boundary between the legal and the political (This article first appeared in Judicial Review on 31 October 2016). 

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Books for budding advocates: the really useful guide

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Books for budding advocates: the really useful guide

It’s a trite complaint of most advocacy textbooks that the “art of oral persuasion” is one that cannot be acquired purely through reading books. Though there is undoubtedly some truth in that statement, those students looking to make a living from the spoken word are well advised to keep an amply stocked bookshelf (This article first appeared in The Times on 20 October 2011).

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Review: Tom Bingham and the Transformation of the Law

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Review: Tom Bingham and the Transformation of the Law

The arc of the book is ambitious, attempting nothing less than the charting of the “transformation” in the law which took place over the course of Bingham's career. In a reflection on Bingham's popularity as a judge, the editors have assembled a stellar array of contributors. Of the 53 essays in the book, two are written by current members of the UK Supreme Court, eight by Court of Appeal judges, two by High Court judges, one by a US Supreme Court Justice, as well as a dazzling host of academics and practitioners from both domestic and foreign jurisdictions (This article first appeared in Public Law in January 2011).

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Review: Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer

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Review: Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer

These memoirs benefit from a career spent at the heart of some of the most controversial criminal cases of the past four decades, including those of Barry George, the Birmingham Six, the "Ricin" trial and the posthumous appeal of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK (This review first appeared in the New Statesman on 24 September 2009).

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Review: The New British Constitution by Vernon Bogdanor

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Review: The New British Constitution by Vernon Bogdanor

The New British Constitution is written with the rare combination of erudition and elegance that places it firmly in the tradition of Dicey and Bagehot. After four decades of observing and writing about constitutional affairs, Bogdanor has become part of the constitutional furniture. Baroness Helena Kennedy QC once noted that “laws are the autobiography of the nation”. If so, then they have a fine biographer in Professor Bogdanor (This article was first published in the journal Judicial Review in 2009).

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