​James Wilson

CLEARLY A BOOK FOR THE SERIOUS CRIMINOLOGICAL GOSSIP….
AND IT IS A CRACKINGLY GOOD READ, TOO!

An appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers

Wildy have published this excellent short book on “Cases, Causes and Controversies: Fifty Tales from the Law” by James Wilson. They are to be congratulated for producing another compelling criminological work which will be of great interest to specialists, practitioners and general readers at a time of renewed interest in this area of law. It is refreshing to have the varied titles which Wildy produce together with the main legal works in their portfolio.

Some of the areas the writer covers begin with the following question: what do the Prince of Wales, Ian Botham, Victoria Gillick, Bette Davis and “a man whose family grave appeared in the background of a splatter horror film” have in common?

Wilson answers: “each of them felt they had been wronged in some way, and each went to court to try and do something about it”. And they were often what we determine as ‘hard cases’. Wilson continues, saying that “sometimes their case was a purely private argument” whilst “others brought cases of national importance, or claims which raised acute moral and ethical principles”.

The author concludes with the result that “some won handsomely, while others lost so badly that they ended up far worse than when they started”. And therein lies the tale for the future… never go to law, unless you want to end up in a book like this entertaining legal read! Fortunately, some clients do not heed the warnings, whilst commentators say that people don’t read many ‘law’ books these days but that is a fallacy for this is a cracking good read.

It is a new work which looks at fifty legal disputes from Victorian times until now, where “a compelling moral or legal issue was at stake, or where the background to the case was interesting, amusing or infuriating”. Just the sort of juicy stuff for the reader to intellectually gnaw on!

Wilson starts with three homicides during Victorian times, including the jurisprudential favourite of Dudley and Stephens, the case of shipwrecked sailors eating the cabin boy and later facing trial for his murder. Disgusting but, unfortunately, true, and philosophically interesting if unpalatable for some who shouldn’t be reading law anyway if they don’t like to discuss these matters.

Wilson then covers cases ranging from the early days of the more sordid aspects of Hollywood and the two world wars, through to recent battles over “super injunctions” sought by the very rich, to MPs’ expenses, to the continually vexed relationship between religion and the law, and to the often “hazy relationship of law and sport” characterized today by the FA taking on the role of the CPS and the police- surely a further jurisprudential work in the making for the avid sports follower together with charities acting as prosecutors.

Of course, some of the stories border on the absurd and need inclusion in the late Gary Slapper’s “Weird Cases”. Questions like: why did the legendarily tough international sportsmen Botham and Lamb show “no fear in the face of hostile fast bowling on the pitch, yet go to their lawyers when their old opponent Imran Khan said something they didn’t like in a newspaper?” Perhaps they have too much money and not enough sense! Although you probably cannot get away with telling a client that truism.

As the author reports “irony runs through many of the cases”. See Bette Davis who was left penniless after losing her case in England and felt she had no option but to return to America and resume working for the studio she had unsuccessfully sued (for which they were very grateful although we never discuss “control”). There is the great ending because after doing so she became one of the richest and most and acclaimed actresses in history. Well done Bette and we all liked her films anyway.

The irony is “less happy” in other examples such as the indigenous rights campaigner Eddie Mabo. He won “a great victory for his people, but was shunned by them during his lifetime and never lived to see his final legal victory”. Such is life for many a campaigner. There are then what Wilson calls “the outright tragic” examples including the execution of the civilian Charles Fryatt by the Germans during the Great War, for example, shocked not only his own side but neutral observers of the day as well.

In modern times, “the blameless good citizens Dianne Pretty and Debbie Purdie were stricken with terminal illnesses and were forced to seek legal approval for their desire to end their lives at a time of their own choosing”. We are most grateful to the author for highlighting these hard cases in such an accessible way. It is written in a clear, accessible style, free of legal technicalities, the book will be of interest not simply to lawyers but to anyone interested in stories of great human interest and how the legal system tried to deal with them.

“The accounts of each case are interesting and include something new for everyone." That is what makes this title and similar ones by Wildy such a great series of stories for the avid legal reader.

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