Adam Gearey, Wayne Morrison and Robert Jago, The Politics of the Common Law: Perspectives, Rights, Processes, Institutions. Routledge-Cavendish: Oxon, 2013; 366 pp. ISBN 978-0415662369, £33.99 (pbk).
In The Politics of the Common Law (The Politics), Gearey, Morrison and Jago provide insight into the complex world of the common law, not as a ‘theoretical hypothesis’ but as a ‘living history’. They argue that the common law is a living organism, capriciously affected by those potent forces of human nature.
The authors see the common law perhaps as reflecting ‘the organic social order that is built up from below’ and where judges ‘are conduit for this process and bring out its inherent rationality’. Significantly, the authors argue that the identity of common law is deceptively coherent; rather, its entity ‘is deeply penetrated by historical legal experience’.
Indeed, the text is much more than a mere introduction to the English legal system. Indeed, The Politics is inspiring because it brings the English legal system to life.
Read the full review on: The Politics of the Common Law: Perspectives, Rights, Processes, Institutions. The Law Teacher, 51:2, 2017, 247-248.