Reviews

Jon Robins anatomises a criminal appeals system that appears to prioritise public confidence over individual fairness, that only grudgingly admits miscarriages of justice and that, even then, fails to compensate its victims unless they prove the very innocence they were presumed to have had in the first place. … Continue reading about Book review: Guilty until Proven Innocent, by Jon Robins

In a fascinating and instructive memoir, the former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, famed as the ‘Sheriff of Wall St’, explains the role and functions of a public prosecutor and recalls some of the most interesting cases of his career.… Continue reading about Book review: Doing Justice by Preet Bharara

Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States who has changed the course of legal history in America and inspired generations of lawyers by her indomitable spirit. Paul Magrath reviews a film which charts the events in her life leading up to her first major court triumph in the continuing struggle against sex discrimination.… Continue reading about Film review: On the Basis of Sex

Sarah Phillimore welcomes a new edition of a text book on child protection law now aimed at a wider readership that includes parents as well as professionals, while doubting how much lay readers will really benefit from it in a system still loaded against public understanding. … Continue reading about Book review: Child protection and the Family Court, by McFarlane, Reardon and Laing

The latest novel to chart the career of Peter Murphy’s increasingly successful young criminal barrister Ben Schroeder combines the horribly contemporary issue of historic sexual abuse with a gripping courtroom drama in which the laws of evidence and the interests of national security are in play, set during the murky political era of the early 1970s.… Continue reading about Book review: One Law For the Rest of Us, by Peter Murphy

The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 (IPA) is the latest step in bringing the hitherto unknown surveillance activities of the State into the light and under statutory control through ‘world-leading oversight’, or — depending on your point of view — the “the most intrusive surveillance regime of any democracy” that legitimises the surveillance State. (The former was how then Home Secretary Amber Rudd described it in a departmental press release; the latter was the reaction of the human rights campaign group, Liberty.)… Continue reading about Book review: Blackstone’s Guide to the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, by Simon McKay