Best law books of the year 2023

I seem to be getting more virtual books than paperbacks or hardbacks. Being a dinosaur, I cannot read books online and so I print them off, hogging the office printer for hopefully not too long. As always this yearly review covers the amazing breadth of experiences that the legal profession has. I hope you enjoy my choices.

I begin with a reference to two brilliant books of memoires which were not published this year but their author passed away in July. Simon Brown was a Law Lord, then a justice of the Supreme Court from 2009 to 2012. He wrote two volumes of delightful memoires, Playing Off The Roof & Other Stories: A patchwork of memories (£20.00) and Second Helpings: & Last Scrapings (£11.75), both published by Marble Hill. They are splendidly chatty and brilliantly convivial accounts of an amazing career at the bar and the bench. His writing is far from stuffy or pompous and full of anecdotes. Apparently Amazon classified his first book as about DIY construction.

The great lawyer, Blackstone, regarded juries as 'the glory of English law.'

The Jury: A Very Short Introduction

Renee Lettow Lerner

£8.99

Why do we have twelve members of the jury? Why are they historically expected to make a decision they are all agreed on? Why do we lawyers have non-lawyers doing a legal job?

The right to have your guilt or innocence decided by a small group of neighbours is a historic and basic entitlement which has taken on almost sacred status. It is an ancient system of justice which is really just common sense. It is the common law’s gift to the world. They are welcome!

This is an excellent and fascinating short book written with an international emphasis by an American academic who, like many of her colleagues in America, admires and values English common law perhaps more than we do. The book introduces the subject with consideration of two films made in the same period, namely To Kill a Mockingbird and Twelve Angry Men, both of which have very different outcomes but deal with jury trial. She argues juries are popular as they have always been cost effective as they were not paid, nor even fed and watered, for most of their history. Judges like them because they deal with the most difficult and possibly controversial decision (guilt or innocence) and leave the easy bit (the sentence) to the judge. That is probably an overstatement but it is an interesting way of looking at why juries have lasted so long.

Juries have consistently been viewed as a most important safeguard against arbitrary rule and bullying, biased or politically motivated judges (perish the thought!). Certainly serving on a jury is the most important function an individual has.

Juries offer common sense and fairness. Although they are now fed and watered and free from the pressure there used to be on them and given expenses, they are really volunteers serving the community. Recently there has been pressure on the continued role of juries. Magistrates’ jurisdiction has increased, some offences are no longer triable either way, and some people say complex fraud trials should be decided by juries. Our commitment to jury trial is something the legal profession has got right. I was interested in an anecdote about a jury in a complex trial and the judge and counsel were most impressed with their attention to the case, taking many notes. It was revealed that they had devised a Sudoku completion as they were so bored!

Now for a thriller.

The File

Gary Born

£26.95, Histria Books

A young botanist is on a scientific expedition in Africa and stumbles across the wreck of an aeroplane which had crashed in the rainforest and lain hidden for many years. The type of aircraft and the uniforms on the remains of the crew readily identify it as a Nazi war machine. It contains a metal cabinet full of documents. That file of papers is evidence of a secret conspiracy to bankroll a Nazi regeneration project after the defeat at the end of the Second World War. It also implicates the politicians and powerful families around the world who had betrayed their countries in return for Hitler’s money. The descendents of those people are still in power and in positions of authority and stand to lose everything if the secrets become known.

So starts a race by the Americans and Russians who are desperate to get the file of papers, no matter who or what gets in the way. They are ruthless, semi-professional, semi-official killers. The heroine of the story is the young botanist who tries to evade capture by escaping through the rainforest and then travels across Africa into Europe. The story ends with an exciting finale in central Europe in a financial centre.

There are lots of thrillers, and some are written by lawyers, but this stands out as a genuinely thrilling book. It is a compelling and exciting story and very entertaining. My interest was kept engaged and I kept wondering what would happened next and how the plot would twist and turn. Not all thriller writers are John Grisham, but Gary Born has done well.

The author, according to the book’s blurb, is a renowned international lawyer, having represented nations and businesses around the world. Born has practiced international arbitration and litigation in London for the past 30 years. He is the chair of the International Arbitration Practice Group at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP. He has sat as arbitrator in more than 275 institutional and ad hoc arbitrations. He is the author of International Commercial Arbitration (3d ed. 2021) and numerous other works on international dispute resolution.

Born chose thrillers because they are engrossing and he likes the inevitable international aspects and settings of spy thrillers. 'Writing fiction is both challenging and exciting in very different ways from legal writing. Legal writing involves very structured assignments that are restricted by the facts and by the law. In contrast, fiction writing happens on a blank piece of paper, with literally anything and everything available as material: even a chapter about, say, a meeting or a gunfight can be set almost anywhere, with almost anything happening. That freedom is enormously exciting and exhilarating, but also daunting.'

Did the judge get it wrong?

Making Decisions Judicially: A Guide for Decision-Makers

Godfrey Cole and many others

£24.99, Hart Publishing

Books on judicial decision making are essential reading for those who write the judgments and the rest of us who read them. Decisions of courts and other bodies need to be fair, clear, and understandable. The party who is successful needs a decision that is clear and it may need to be enforced and the party that came second needs to understand the reasons for the decision so they can take any necessary action including whether an appeal is possible.

There has been considerable training for judges in recent years on this subject, partly driven by interest in making courts accessible to all parties including vulnerable witnesses and the increase in unrepresented litigants. There are innovations in making these decisions understandable to all concerned. Court judgments have been described as a 'letter to the loser', and so they are.

The impact of Covid and technological developments will alter courts. Video hearings must save time and expense and make courts accessible to people with mobility issues or disability. Another interesting innovation is the idea of Ground Rules Hearings which started in criminal courts to identify any accessibility and vulnerability issue and enable an open discussion with the judge or body to enable the best evidence and full participation of witnesses. This book has a good explanation on these issues. There are also excellent sections on judge-craft and good style and sooner or later all books on this subject refer to Lord Denning. He is the master of judicial style!

Reason writing is not easy or straightforward. Judges are only human. This is an excellent book on the subject and vital reading for decision makers and those of us who advise the winners and losers.

Whether you are getting to grips with assassins, experts, juries, judges or pigs, have a great Christmas and buy lots of books!

 

David Pickup is a partner at Pickup & Scott Solicitors, Aylesbury