Top 10 Books for Law Students (Part 1)
Top 10 Books for Law Students
In this article we gathered Top 10 Books for Law Students, Lawyer and Legal Specialists. Further parts of this series will continue.
1. About Law – Tony Honoré
Here is a simple introduction to the intellectual challenges presented by law in the western secular tradition written by one of that tradition’s most revered and eminent scholars. This book provides the intelligent student contemplating a career in law with a brief yet comprehensive introduction to the subject.It also makes an ideal starting point for the general reader who is curious to explore the intellectual interest of the subject.
Treating not just British law, but the whole western tradition of law, Professor Honore guides the reader through eleven topics which straddle various branches of the law, including constitutional and criminal law, property, and contracts. He also explores moral and historical aspects of the law, including a discussion of justice and the difference between civil and common law systems. The law, Honore argues, is mainly concerned with the question of obedience to authority, and establishing the situations in which obedience is required and those in which it may be waived ought to be the central concern of all legal theorists.
All these issues are examined broadly and simply, keeping technicalities at a minimum. The result is a book that offers as broad a picture of western law as possible, providing an accessible overview and a firm base for further study.
2. Landmarks in the Law – Lord Denning
Written in Lord Denning’s familiar style, this book discusses cases and characters whose names will be known to all readers, grouped together under headings such as High Treason, Freedom of the Press, and Murder. Lord Denning also covers what he describes as his most important case – the Profumo Inquiry; he discusses the key issues and characters involved in this scandal, which at the time seemed likely to bring down the Government.
3. Letters to a Law Student – Nicholas McBride
What does it take to succeed as a law student? This book will show you how.
Voted one of the top 6 books that all future law students should read by The Guardian’s studying law website*, Letters to a Law Student is packed full of practical advice and helpful answers to the most common questions about studying law at University across every stage of taking, or thinking about taking, a law degree.
Discover:
* Whether studying law at University is the right thing for you;
* What law students do;
* How to get the best marks in exams;
* Tips on coping with the challenges of studying law;
* What you can do with a law degree;
* The way in which qualifying as a solicitor is set to change in the future,
… and much more.
Nicholas J. McBride is a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge.
4. Bleak House – Charles Dickens
Bleak House opens in the twilight of foggy London, where fog grips the city most densely in the Court of Chancery. The obscure case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce, in which an inheritance is gradually devoured by legal costs, the romance of Esther Summerson and the secrets of her origin, the sleuthing of Detective Inspector Bucket and the fate of Jo the crossing-sweeper, these are some of the lives Dickens invokes to portray London society, rich and poor, as no other novelist has done. Bleak House, in its atmosphere, symbolism and magnificent bleak comedy, is often regarded as the best of Dickens. A ‘great Victorian novel’, it is so inventive in its competing plots and styles that it eludes interpretation.
5. Learning the Law – Glanville Williams
First published in 1945, Glanville Williams: Learning the Law has been introducing new and prospective law students to the foundation skills needed to study law effectively for over 70 years. Presenting an overview of the English Legal System and covering the essential legal skills that students need to master if they want to succeed both in their legal studies and in their future careers, this is a must-have book for all new law students!
6. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it. “To Kill A Mockingbird” became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, “To Kill A Mockingbird” takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos. Now with over 18 million copies in print and translated into forty languages, this regional story by a young Alabama woman claims universal appeal. Harper Lee always considered her book to be a simple love story. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece of American literature.
7. Jeremy Hutchinson’s Case Histories – Thomas Grant
‘Throughout a long career, [Jeremy Hutchinson’s] brilliant and stylish advocacy achieved success in cases that looked unwinnable’ Helena Kennedy
‘Jeremy was not just a good lawyer; he was fearless in standing up to judges. He was the most formidable advocate of the 1960s and ’70s and he had a marvellous sense of mischief’ Geoffrey Robertson
Born in 1915 into the fringes of the Bloomsbury Group, Jeremy Hutchinson went on to become the greatest criminal barrister of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. The cases of that period changed society for ever and Hutchinson’s role in them was second to none. In Case Histories, Jeremy Hutchinson’s most remarkable trials are examined, each one providing a fascinating look into Britain’s post-war social, political and cultural history.
Accessibly and entertainingly written, Case Histories provides a definitive account of Jeremy Hutchinson’s life and work. From the sex and spying scandals which contributed to Harold Macmillan’s resignation in 1963 and the subsequent fall of the Conservative government, to the fight against literary censorship through his defence of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Fanny Hill, Hutchinson was involved in many of the great trials of the period. He defended George Blake, Christine Keeler, Great Train robber Charlie Wilson, Kempton Bunton (the only man successfully to ‘steal’ a picture from the National Gallery), art ‘faker’ Tom Keating, and Howard Marks who, in a sensational defence, was acquitted of charges relating to the largest importation of cannabis in British history. He also prevented the suppression of Bernardo Bertolucci’s notorious film Last Tango in Paris and did battle with Mary Whitehouse when she prosecuted the director of the play Romans in Britain.
Above all else, Jeremy Hutchinson’s career, both at the bar and later as a member of the House of Lords, has been one devoted to the preservation of individual liberty and to resisting the incursions of an overbearing state. Case Histories provides entertaining, vivid and revealing insights into what was really going on in those celebrated courtroom dramas that defined an age, as well as painting a picture of a remarkable life.
To listen to Jeremy Hutchinson being interviewed by Helena Kennedy on BBC Radio 4’s A Law Unto Themselves, please follow the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04d4cpv
You can also listen to him on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs with Kirsty Young: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03ddz8m
8. Winning Arguments – Jay Heinrichs
Winning Arguments: From Aristotle to Obama – Everything You Need to Know About the Art of Persuasion by Jay Heinrichs
Everyone is always trying to persuade us of something: politicians, advertising, the media, and most definitely our families. With all the wisdom of the ages, from Aristotle and Stalin to Yoda and Monty Python, Winning Arguments will show you how to win more than your fair share of arguments, as well as: > How to shine at work, avoid speeding tickets, and outwit argumentative partners > Cicero’s secrets to moving an audience and Honest Abe Lincoln’s ‘shameless trick’ > Tactics like Setting Your Goals, Making Them Listen and Gaining the High Ground > The art of rhetoric, from eloquence and friendship to ready wit and irrefutable logic Winning Arguments is brimming with endless examples of persuasion and plenty of techniques to help you get your way.
9. Lord Denning, A Life – Iris Freeman
Although he retired over a decade ago, Lord Denning remains Britain’s best known and, to many, most controversial judge. As Master of the Rolls, a position he occupied for 20 years, he saw his job as the making of law, not merely the interpretation of it, and he gave judgments which placed the judiciary at the centre of political and social change.
10. On Liberty – John Stuart Mill
Discussed and debated from time immemorial, the concept of personal liberty went without codification until the 1859 publication of On Liberty. John Stuart Mill’s complete and resolute dedication to the cause of freedom inspired this treatise, an enduring work through which the concept remains well known and studied.
The British economist, philosopher, and ethical theorist’s argument does not focus on “the so-called Liberty of the Will…but Civil, or Social Liberty: the nature and limits of the power which can be legitimately exercised by society over the individual.” Mill asks and answers provocative questions relating to the boundaries of social authority and individual sovereignty. In powerful and persuasive prose, he declares that there is “one very simple principle” regarding the use of coercion in society — one may only coerce others either to defend oneself or to defend others from harm.
The new edition offers students of political science and philosophy, in an inexpensive volume, one of the most influential studies on the nature of individual liberty and its role in a democratic society.
In this article we gathered Top 10 Books for Law Students, Lawyer and Legal Specialists. Further parts of this series will continue.
Source: www.oxfordscholastica.com