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Just Law
  • Published: 2 May 2005
  • ISBN: 9780099458333
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $39.99

Just Law




'Comes the hour. Comes the book. If Kennedy can't stir a reaction, then nobody can' Observer

Acute, questioning, humane and passionately concerned for justice, Helena Kennedy is one of the most powerful voices in legal circles in Britain today. Here she roundly challenges the record of modern governments over the fundamental values of equality, fairness and respect for human dignity. She argues that in the last twenty years we have seen a steady erosion of civil liberties, culminating today in extraordinary legislation, which undermines long established freedoms. Are these moves a crude political response to demands for law and order? Or is the relationship between citizens and the state being covertly reframed and redefined?

  • Published: 2 May 2005
  • ISBN: 9780099458333
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $39.99

About the author

Helena Kennedy

Helena Kennedy QC is one of Britain’s most distinguished lawyers and public figures. She is a regular broadcaster, journalist and lecturer and throughout her career has focussed on giving voice to those who have least power in the system, championing civil liberties and civil rights. Her 1992 book Eve Was Framed led to a number of key reforms for women and was followed in 2004 by Just Law. She was the Master of Mansfield College, University of Oxford, from 2011 to 2018, and was awarded a life peerage in 1997. Born in Glasgow, she lives in London.

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Praise for Just Law

Remarkable - a passionate, cogent and eloquent defence of the idea of law as the framework for a just society... Vitally important

Financial Times

Highly readable... Startlingly topical

Sunday Telegraph

Passionate and well-argued. This is a book not just for lawyers but for anyone who cares about the boundaries between the state and the individual... An excellent, courageous and compelling howl of outrage from an insider who has refused to be intimidated

Independent

Powerful and prescient

Daily Telegraph

This is a remarkable book by a remarkable woman. It is both a polemical assault on the actions of the present British Government...and a manifesto for an alternative agenda. All that Kennedy writes is refreshingly free form inhibition... Justice does indeed matter to us all

Times Literary Supplement

This is a good book, well-written, pacey and to the point

Sunday Times

Admirable... Without Helena Kennedy's passionate defence of the rule of law we might be completely in the hands of an uncaring government

Daily Mail