PatThe Trial
January 19th 2008 03:55
The Trial is described by its author as being a study of the development of the criminal trial over the last four thousand years.
Sadakat Kadri is a half-Finnish and half-Pakistani English barrister with a colourful background of studying history and law at Cambridge University and later obtaining his master's degree from Harvard Law School. He practises as a barrister in London, whilst also being a member of the New York Bar. He is described as having represented several Caribbean death-row prisoners, assisted in the prosecution of former Malawian president Hastings Banda for murder, and was involved with proceedings with established the illegality of a military dictatorship in Fiji. Obviously he is eminently qualified to comment on technical legal and philosophical matters dealing with the modern and historical criminal law trial, especially in the context of English law.
Perhaps I found the subject matter of this book to be of more interest than most, as I have practised as a criminal lawyer myself, but this book doesn't take the route of focusing on legalistic and murky issues which would be the fear that a casual reader would legitimately have when picking up a book of this nature. Instead, Kadri takes the reader through the important historical developments which took place in the evolution of the criminal law courts from a superstitious, primitive rabble to the slightly less superstitious, modern rabble through the telling of entertaining, and often light-hearted stories about very serious incidents throughout history. Rarely does Kadri lecture on the topic and as a result, this book is much more readable than expected.
Possibly the only flaw with this approach, however, is that Kadri often seems to get caught up in the story-telling and his versions of events struck me as being biased to a certain degree for the sake of creating a hero and a villain. This is only a feeling on my part, because Kadri has obviously researched this book to an incredible degree, but he gives himself away to a certain extent as he changes point of view during the story telling process to emphasis a point, and his bias seems to change with it. I'm not suggesting that this is necessarily a major problem (in fact it's probably part of what makes the book so easy to digest) but it does make you wonder at times about just how much of the truth that Kadri has trimmed to make the tale slightly taller.
In any event, his anecdotes generally serve their purpose and from discussion of the Salem witch trials, to the Spanish Inquisition and on to the hysteria of the OJ Simpson trial, they effectively demonstrate the benefits and flaws which arise due to the peculiar quirks in the law which have arisen over thousands of years of human history. He does so in an intelligent and concise manner and he manages to summarise and simplify a number of exceedingly complex issues to the point where they are palatable to the most lay of laypeople.
Overall, this book is a fascinating examination of an unfashionable subject. At times Kadri takes a pessimistic view of history (and he certainly isn't overly thrilled about the state of the modern criminal law system) and seems to emphasis the horrors of the past to a greater degree than he discusses the benefits and strengths which have developed as a result, but people much smarter than myself struggle with these issues on a daily basis and I'm hardly going to criticise the author for this. The strengths of this book far outweigh any perceived weaknesses and if you aren't afraid of taking on some serious reading material (spiced up with lashings of gore and violence) then you will enjoy this book.
Sadakat Kadri is a half-Finnish and half-Pakistani English barrister with a colourful background of studying history and law at Cambridge University and later obtaining his master's degree from Harvard Law School. He practises as a barrister in London, whilst also being a member of the New York Bar. He is described as having represented several Caribbean death-row prisoners, assisted in the prosecution of former Malawian president Hastings Banda for murder, and was involved with proceedings with established the illegality of a military dictatorship in Fiji. Obviously he is eminently qualified to comment on technical legal and philosophical matters dealing with the modern and historical criminal law trial, especially in the context of English law.
Perhaps I found the subject matter of this book to be of more interest than most, as I have practised as a criminal lawyer myself, but this book doesn't take the route of focusing on legalistic and murky issues which would be the fear that a casual reader would legitimately have when picking up a book of this nature. Instead, Kadri takes the reader through the important historical developments which took place in the evolution of the criminal law courts from a superstitious, primitive rabble to the slightly less superstitious, modern rabble through the telling of entertaining, and often light-hearted stories about very serious incidents throughout history. Rarely does Kadri lecture on the topic and as a result, this book is much more readable than expected.
Possibly the only flaw with this approach, however, is that Kadri often seems to get caught up in the story-telling and his versions of events struck me as being biased to a certain degree for the sake of creating a hero and a villain. This is only a feeling on my part, because Kadri has obviously researched this book to an incredible degree, but he gives himself away to a certain extent as he changes point of view during the story telling process to emphasis a point, and his bias seems to change with it. I'm not suggesting that this is necessarily a major problem (in fact it's probably part of what makes the book so easy to digest) but it does make you wonder at times about just how much of the truth that Kadri has trimmed to make the tale slightly taller.
In any event, his anecdotes generally serve their purpose and from discussion of the Salem witch trials, to the Spanish Inquisition and on to the hysteria of the OJ Simpson trial, they effectively demonstrate the benefits and flaws which arise due to the peculiar quirks in the law which have arisen over thousands of years of human history. He does so in an intelligent and concise manner and he manages to summarise and simplify a number of exceedingly complex issues to the point where they are palatable to the most lay of laypeople.
Overall, this book is a fascinating examination of an unfashionable subject. At times Kadri takes a pessimistic view of history (and he certainly isn't overly thrilled about the state of the modern criminal law system) and seems to emphasis the horrors of the past to a greater degree than he discusses the benefits and strengths which have developed as a result, but people much smarter than myself struggle with these issues on a daily basis and I'm hardly going to criticise the author for this. The strengths of this book far outweigh any perceived weaknesses and if you aren't afraid of taking on some serious reading material (spiced up with lashings of gore and violence) then you will enjoy this book.
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Comment by Luke
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
Comment by Pat
Books Are For Losers
This is also my dullest review yet and I'm glad that someone commented on it because it looked so lonely there for a while.
Comment by Luke
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
Comment by Pat
Books Are For Losers