by Adam Gearey (Author), Adam Gearey (Author), Wayne Morrison (Author), Robert Jago (Author)
The Politics of the Common Law is an introduction to the English legal system that places the law in its contemporary context. It is not like other conventional accounts that simply seek to describe institutions and summarise details. The book is a coherent argument, organised around a number of central claims. Can today's common law be characterised as a series of emergent practices that articulate the principles of human rights and due process? The common law is presented as historical experience; the authors present the perspective that we are in the opening of a new chapter.
The argument examines the impact of the European Convention on the structures and ideologies of the common law, and suggests that there is now a general jurisprudence of human rights stemming from the Human Rights Act. The Human Rights Act has also led to more pronounced judicial intervention into politics, and is precipitating a debate on the forms that the rule of law should assume in contemporary British democracy. Equally important is the function of European Union law, and the extent to which it is also committed to due process and the rule of law. These themes are read into civil and criminal procedure, and broader concerns about the tensions between the requirements of economics and the demands of justice. Can a revitalised common law address a plural, post-colonial future?
Format: Paperback
Pages: 432
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge-Cavendish
Published: 19 Aug 2008
ISBN 10: 0415481538
ISBN 13: 9780415481533
I welcome the book as a major statement on a twenty-first century evaluation of common law as our own legal system becomes more entwined in EU law, and global legal and financial issues (most certainly the financial ones) appear so much more relevant to all than they once did... The greatest value of the book for me is that it places our picture of the common law in its contemporary context and reviews our criminal and civil procedures - Philip Taylor, Barrister-at-Law, Richmond Green Chambers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubc7WUyfAu8)