Ashes and Sparks
Essays On Law and Justice

Through multiple topics, these essays offer a principled perspective on the unfolding history of law and justice in Britain.

Stephen Sedley (Author)

9780521170901, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 24 February 2011

443 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.7 kg

'… 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

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 This anthology contains classic articles, previously unpublished essays and lecture transcripts.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.

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.

Subject Areas: Constitutional & administrative law [LND], Legal system: general [LNA], Comparative law [LAM], Constitution: government & the state [JPHC], Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP]