header-logo header-logo

12 August 2020 / Harry Potter
Categories: Features , Constitutional law
printer mail-detail

Book review: Anglo-American Law: A Comparison

"As much an argument as a disquisition, and full of amusing asides, it pulls no punches about the danger of judicial activism..."

Author: Michael Arnheim
Publisher: Talbot Publishing
ISBN: 9781616196325
Price: £70 hb, £7.98 ebook

From the author of The US Constitution for Dummies, this book is in similar vein and covers some of the same material. It provides a comparative overview of the legal systems in England and America, accompanied by many analyses of cases mainly relating to torts, privacy and human rights. Criminal law is absent. 

As much an argument as a disquisition, and full of amusing asides, it pulls no punches about the danger of judicial activism which is rife in both jurisdictions. Almost every page is thought-provoking and contentious. The main thesis is that in England, beginning with the case of Donoghue v Stephenson in 1932 (‘the year of the snail’ as Arnheim calls it), legal principle has been increasingly sacrificed to judicial law-making.

The issue of judicial encroachment into the sovereignty of parliament

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Harneys—Maggie Kwok & George Weston

Harneys—Maggie Kwok & George Weston

Harneys senior leadership appointments

Freeths—Keith Browne & Jim Jordan

Freeths—Keith Browne & Jim Jordan

Freeths strengthens London Construction and Engineering practice with two strategic senior hires

Anthony Collins—Laura Moss

Anthony Collins—Laura Moss

Anthony Collins announces strategic hire to deepen skills base in the social business sector

NEWS
Existing defamation law can respond to AI ‘hallucinations’, but allocating responsibility will prove harder where outputs reach users without human intervention
The High Court has upheld a rare successful serious-irregularity challenge after an arbitrator relied on an implied term neither party had advanced
Thirty years after The Future of Law shook a profession still using fax machines, its central forecast looks increasingly less like prophecy and more like description
More than 100 teams from the legal and financial services sectors competed in five sports at the 51st Law Society RFC Festival of Sport earlier this month
Part-time status need only be an effective cause of less favourable treatment, rather than the sole cause, the Supreme Court has held in Augustine v Data Cars
back-to-top-scroll