Just Law [Kindle Edition]

Other subjects she discusses are imprisonment without trial in terrorist crimes and the divulging of past offences to a jury before they consider their verdict in a court case. All her arguments are based on long-established tenets of our judicial system. Tony Blair says that the balance is tipped too far against the victims of crime. What he does not say is that the accused are innocent until proved guilty. Innocent people are sent to jail for decades, their lives in ruins, yet the government seems to be unconcerned except to charge them board and lodgings for all their years behind bars.

The title of the book comes from a meeting the author had with a government whip after she had voted against the party on one of these issues. "It's just law!" he said, using the word 'just' as 'only' or 'merely'. She means 'just' as 'fair', nicely contrasting her more noble purpose to his cynical remark.

Kennedy wrote the book very quickly and it sometimes shows in some repetition but she was clearly a very angry lady. Her message is very important indeed. Authoritarianism seems in the ascendent in the USA and UK and we are sleepwalking towards a rather unpleasant world.

In "Just Law", Kennedy begins by looking at eighteen "inroads into our liberty" - the disturbing propensity for Blair's Ministers to question the law, seek to override it, and establish executive powers of their own. On the one hand, the Westminster Parliament has signed up to the human rights agenda, on the other, the Cabinet seems determined to keep liberties circumscribed and under its control. Of course, a Prime Minister who is prepared to lie about the reasons for war in Iraq and simply ignore public opinion is a politician who is more interested in having his way than leading the way.

Kennedy points out that Blair is not a liberal - she identifies a strong authoritarian dynamic in his personality and politics. He is obsessed by spin, obsessed with giving everything a rosy feel. He wants to be seen as a nice guy. But he's on his way to creating 1,000 new criminal offences since coming to power and has demonstrated an ability to orchestrate the tabloid headlines to press for new laws and new powers to fight ... well, whoever he identifies as the cause of the next moral panic he leads.

Kennedy demonstrates that law is ultimately about politics. It is also about values and rights, and if we submit to the bullying and allow the politicians to write laws to safeguard and promote their own powers, we shouldn't be surprised if our own rights are eroded.

A disturbing analysis from a very bright, passionate, and determined lawyer, one which deserves a wider reading.