Ashes and Sparks
Essays On Law and Justice
£75.00
- Author: Stephen Sedley, Judiciary of England and Wales
- Date Published: February 2011
- availability: Available
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9781107000957
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As a practising barrister, the Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Sedley wrote widely on legal and non-legal matters, and continued to do so after becoming a judge in 1992. This anthology contains classic articles, previously unpublished essays and lecture transcripts. To each, he has added reflections on what has transpired since or an explanation of the British legal and political context that originally prompted it. Covering the history, engineering and architecture of the justice system, their common theme relates to the author's experiences as a barrister and judge, most notably in relation to the constitutional changes which have emerged in the last twenty years in the United Kingdom.
Read more- Makes classic articles and essays available once more, with additional postscripts written during 2010
- Analyses and comments on developments of continuing interest and concern in the UK justice system
- Situates events and developments in a context both of history and of principle, thus contributing to a coherent modern philosophy of law and justice
Reviews & endorsements
'This excellent book gathers lectures and articles which Stephen Sedley has composed over about thirty years, as advocate, trial judge and lord justice. Readers will be impressed, as I have been, by his learning and by the great sagacity of his judgments on many of the prime legal issues of our time.' Tom Bingham (1933–2010), former Senior Law Lord
See more reviews'This is a great book, with powerful insights in law and justice offered in a hugely enjoyable collection of witty essays. The book is of obvious interest to legal theorists and practitioners, but it is also astonishingly successful in bringing significant legal issues, even quite complicated ones, within easy reach of general public discussion.' Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate, 1998
'Stephen Sedley writes with such calm cadence and laid-back humour that it is only at the end of each chapter that you realise how persuasively radical his reflections are. Whichever way you look at it - judging this book by its cover, or covering this book by a judge - you are offered delight and enlightenment from beginning to end.' Albie Sachs, former judge, Constitutional Court of South Africa
'Ashes and Sparks grapples with some of the fundamental justice issues facing modern nations. Justice Sedley's thoughtful - and sometimes provocative - comments on the evolution of the justice system in the United Kingdom, the role of Parliament and the courts, and the constitutional role of law in the search for social and individual justice, inform us and challenge us to think more deeply on these matters, so vital to our society.' Rt. Hon. Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice of Canada
'The best book I've read so far this year … You could have no interest in the law and read [this] book for pure intellectual delight, for the exquisite, finely balanced prose, the prickly humor, the knack of artful quotation and an astonishing historical grasp. A novelist could be jealous.' Ian McEwan, The New York Times
'Brilliant, compassionate, engaged with society. These essays are a reflection of a remarkable mind. Astonishing that the originality and open-mindedness were not stamped out by the years of judicial toil. In and out of court, always a good read.' Sir Michael Kirby, Justice of the High Court of Australia, 1996–2009
'A marvellous collection of essays, steering through profound questions of society, law and justice, which engages the reader in a lively and learned discussion of many themes. Stephen Sedley writes of judging and justice with the deep knowledge that comes from long experience of the law and rich experience of life. Many more sparks than ashes …' Jean-Paul Costa, President, European Court of Human Rights
'In this remarkable and capacious volume, Stephen Sedley sifts the law with wit, wisdom and lucidity. As he brings his incisive intelligence and deep historical knowledge to the tensions between human rights and common law, to our competing rights and responsibilities, to the dysfunctions of the democratic system and the workings of justice, the very meaning of judiciousness takes on a new force. This is a book that anyone interested in our polity will savour.' Lisa Appignanesi, President, English PEN
'What unites all these pieces is the sheer quality of writing.' Counsel
'Instructive and entertaining in equal measure.' Socialist Lawyer
'… an educational and enlightening read … the thrust of this collection of essays is the studied observations of an exceptional mind, not only about the legal systems in the UK and elsewhere, but perhaps more importantly about the human condition. I will read it again.' Donald E. Shelton, Critical Criminology
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×Product details
- Date Published: February 2011
- format: Hardback
- isbn: 9781107000957
- length: 446 pages
- dimensions: 235 x 162 x 25 mm
- weight: 0.83kg
- availability: Available
Table of Contents
Part I. History:
1. Victors' justice
2. Above it all
3. Reading their rights
4. From victim to suspect
5. Farewell sovereignty
6. No law at all
7. The sound of silence
8. The spark in the ashes
9. Wringing out the fault
10. Everything and nothing
11. Skulls and crossbones
Part II. Judgery:
12. Justice miscarried
13. The Guildford Four
14. Declining the brief
15. Big lawyers and little lawyers
16. Parliament, government, courts
17. Judges in lodgings
18. Mice peeping out of oakum
19. Justice in Chile
20. Never do anything for the first time
21. Rarely pure and never simple
22. Law and plumbing
23. The laws of documents
Part III. Justice:
24. The right to know
25. The moral economy of judicial review
26. Policy and law
27. Responsibility and the law
28. The Crown in its own courts
29. Human rights - who needs them?
30. Fundamental values - but which?
31. Overcoming pragmatism
32. Sex, libels and video-surveillance
33. This beats me
34. Public inquiries: a cure or a disease?
35. Human rights: a 21st century agenda
36. Are human rights universal, and does it matter?
37. Bringing rights home: time to start a family?
38. The three wise monkeys visit the marketplace of ideas.
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