Over the years of the developing judicial review of ministerial and governmental decisions, Louis Blom-Cooper was a leading advocate who grew up with the advent of a distinctive brand of public law. His range of public activities, both in and outwith the courtroom, saw him dubbed by his colleagues as a polymath practitioner.It included chairmanship of plural public inquiries in child abuse and mental health, media contributions in the broadsheet press and in broadcasting, and innovation in penal reform, as an ardent campaigner for the abolition of capital punishment and a plea for a modern Homicide Act. He styled himself as a modern, reconstructed liberal - a man before his time. This collection of essays is uniquely prefaced by a self-examination of his unorthodox philosophy towards the law in action. It covers a variety of socio-legal topics that expresses his ambition to inform a poorly-educated public on the workings of the legal system. This aim involves a discussion of the constitutional history of Britain, unwritten and insufficiently interpreted; it reflects a commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights and portrays its international origins. The collection opines on crime and punishment; in the functioning of the courts and elsewhere the political shift from the penal optimism of the 1970s to the reactionary punitiveness of the post-1990s. The essays conclude with a miscellany of affairs, reflecting on professional practices and their product of judicial heroes in Lord Reid and Lord Bingham.

Foreword by Lord Dyson, Master of the RollsIntroduction Part I: Public Law: Judicial and Judicious Review1 The Scope of Judicial Review and the Rule of Law: Between Judicial Restraint and Judicial Creativity 2 Judicial Review: its Genesis and Growth Post-19773 Judges in Public Inquiries, Redivivus 4 The Road to Rome and Strasbourg via San Francisco: the Genesis of Human Rights5 Towards a Legal Forum of the IslesPart II: Crime and Justice6 A Calendar of Murder: the Causes of Unjustifiable Homicide7 Towards a New Homicide Act8 The Penalty for Murder: Life after Death9 The Apotheosis of Amateurism10 English Juries on Trial11 The Ambit of Innocence12 'Consuming Your Own Smoke'13 Crime and Justice: a Shift in Perspective14 The Magistracy - a Professional Court?15 Serious Fraud Offences: Whither Their Trial?16 James Hanratty: a Vindicatory View17 An Advocate's Tale18 Criminal Justice on Trial19 Victims AdriftPart III: Penal Affairs20 The Whys and Wherefores of Penal Policy21 Community Service: Penological Progress22 Prisoners' Right to Vote23 DangerousnessPart IV: Media Law24 Press (Media) Freedom: Constitutional Right or Cultural Assumption?25 The Jurisprudence of Privacy26 Media Freedom: a New Concept in Free Speech27 Censors in the Courtroom28 The Historical Background to Self-Regulation of the PressPart V: Miscellany29 Jan Christiaan Smuts (1870-1950): Middle Templar Extraordinary30 Intervention and Amicus Curiae31 Bench and Bar32 Judicial Heroes33 Lord Denning's Legacy: a Judicial Misfit?34 Pilgrims' Progress: Academics and Practitioners