Democracy Through Law Selected Speeches and Judgments Collected Essays in Law Series

In this collection of lectures and essays with seminal judgments, the author describes a gradual development of the United Kingdom as a constitutional state. Democracy through Law traces the recent phenomenon of the constitutionalisation of public law and analyses the present state of human rights law. Also discussed are topical international law issues including the Pinochet case to "Guantanamo: The Legal Black Hole".

Contents: Introduction. Theory and Practice: A common bond; Does legal formalism hold sway in England?; Pepper v Hart: a re-examination; The intractable problem of the interpretation of legal texts; Dynamic interpretation amidst an orgy of statutes; The role of the bar, the judge and the jury: winds of change; The value of dissenting judgments: Fisher v Minister of Public Safety and Immigration [1998] AC673, 686. Constitutional Law and Public Policy: The weakest and least dangerous department of government; The case for a supreme court; Creating a supreme court; Democracy through law; Constitutional principle in action: R (Anufrijeva) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2004] 1 AC604, 618. Human Rights Law: Human rights: the legacy of Mrs Roosevelt; The case of Augusto Pinochet: a breakthrough: R. v Bow Street Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate Ex parte Pinochet Ugarte [2002] 1 AC 61, 111; The new legal landscape; The ethos of the European Convention on Human Rights: Brown v Stott [2003] 1 AC 681, 706; The centrality of the right to a fair trial as a human rights norm. Humanitarian Law: Guantanamo Bay: the legal black hole. Contract and Tort Law: The role of good faith and fair dealing in contract law: a hair - shirt philosophy?; Contract law: fulfilling the reasonable expectations of honest men; Written contracts: to what extent may evidence control language?; A kind of Esperanto?; Perspectives of corrective and distributive justice in tort law; Immunity of suit of advocates: Arthur J.S. Hall Co. v Simons [2002] 1 AC615, 675. Arbitration: England's response to the UNCITRAL model law of arbitration. Westminster Abbey: Address at memorial service for the Rt Hon The Lord Williams of Mostyn QC 20 January 2004; Name index.

Johan Steyn is A Lord of Appeal in Ordinary at the House of Lords, UK.