Books in the The Hamlyn Lectures series

A novel experiment in comparative legal history, exploring the legal world in England under Elizabeth I and Elizabeth II. Despite the distance of four centuries, many of the concerns of Elizabethan lawyers resonate with those of today. The book concentrates on the rule of law and the delivery of justice.

Chief Justice of New Zealand, Dame Sian Elias examines whether changes which many jurisdictions across the Commonwealth are currently making to the criminal justice system present a risk to the integrity of the system, fundamental human rights and the rule of law.

This series of Hamlyn Lectures examines the topic of statute law from three distinct points of view: interpretation, interaction and improvement. It will appeal to law students, both undergraduate and graduate, political scientists, practising lawyers, and readers with a general interest in law.

Are the rights we currently afford to children enough? This book restates the importance of law, policy and rights in improving children's lives. This book will appeal to an interdisciplinary audience who are interested in children's rights, children's studies, the history of childhood, international human rights, and comparative family law.

In a democracy, regulating the legal profession, setting the parameters of access to justice and determining the role of the judiciary are too important to be left to lawyers and judges alone. Alan Paterson also discusses the democratic tensions caused by the enhanced power of the judiciary in the UK.

Paul Craig's analysis of UK, EU and global administrative law examines the foundations and challenges facing each system and reveals how each is capable of influencing and informing developments in the others.

This trenchant critique of developments in English civil justice, underlines its social purpose, challenges the diversion of cases from public courts to private dispute resolution, and points to the downgrading of civil justice in the face of escalating criminal justice spending.

The British justice system is an ancient one that has continually evolved to meet modern needs. In this set of three essays, originally presented as the Hamlyn lectures in 2012, Jack Straw reviews some of the most important recent reforms to the system of British justice and suggests key areas in need of further reform. He focuses in particular on the criminal courts, human rights, judicial appointments and the relationship between the UK Parliament, the domestic courts and the European Court of Human Rights. In all three cases, he argues that the British justice system is now in a healthier state than it has been in his lifetime, but that there remains much room - and need - for improvement.

British judges increasingly now pay attention to foreign case law when deciding domestic cases, and are required to interpret and apply international law in domestic courts and administer an international code of human rights. Tom Bingham examines the consequences of this increasingly internationalist outlook of British courts, including cases which rely on a range of foreign cases, cases where an international convention or principle is interpreted and cases in which human rights cases are decided in reliance on principles established elsewhere.

When property rights and environmental legislation clash, what side should the Rule of Law weigh in on? It is from this point that Jeremy Waldron explores the Rule of Law both from an historical perspective - considering the property theory of John Locke - and from the perspective of modern legal controversies. This critical and direct account of the relation between the Rule of Law and the protection of private property criticizes the view - associated with the 'World Bank model' of investor expectations - that a society which fails to protect property rights against legislative restriction is failing to support the Rule of Law. In this book, developed from the 2011 Hamlyn Lectures, Waldron rejects the idea that the Rule of Law privileges property rights over other forms of law and argues instead that the Rule of Law should endorse and applaud the use of legislation to achieve valid social objectives.

For the 2013 Hamlyn Lectures, Sir John Laws explored the constitutional balance between law and government in the United Kingdom. He argues that the unifying principle of the constitution is the common law and that its distinctive method has endowed the British State with profoundly beneficial effects, before examining two contemporary threats to the constitutional balance: extremism and the effect of Europe-made laws on the domestic English system.

In this book, which is derived from the Hamlyn Lectures delivered in 2005, Conor Gearty considers whether human rights can survive the challenges of the war on terror, the revival of political religion, and the steady erosion of the world's natural resources.