​James Wilson
Author
James Wilson
BA/LLB (Hons) University of Auckland
​
Senior Prize in law, 1995
Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Bio
I grew up in New Zealand but have lived in the United Kingdom since 1998. I studied law and political science at Auckland University, and was awarded a senior prize in my final year at Law School.
After graduating I worked in private practice in both New Zealand and London, and later moved to be a legal author, editor and manager. I managed a law reporting team and the journals & magazines team at LexisNexis. I have trained many lawyers over the years in different forms of writing and editing. I presently work as Head of Standards Governance for BSI. For more detail please see my Linkedin profile.
I always enjoyed writing, though for many years only wrote formal legal documents and reports. I fired off the odd letter to The Times newspaper here and there, but started writing for the general public in earnest in 2009. In that year, I was involved in a book in a variety of capacities - commissioning, editing and production - and wrote a set of chapter introductions. The reception was encouraging enough for me to start writing more 'interesting' material as opposed to dry legal fare.
Initially I blogged for Halsbury's Law Exchange, an independent legal think tank set up and funded by LexisNexis (since absorbed into the general LN website). For a time I served as Head of Policy. I set up my own blog in parallel, initially just for personal convenience, but after it started to attract an audience I started blogging exclusively there. I have also been published on the UK Human Rights Blog, the UK Supreme Court Blog, the New Law Journal, Estates Gazette and Criminal Law & Justice Weekly.
​
My first book, Cases, Causes and Controversies: fifty tales from the law, was published by Wildy, Simmonds & Hill in 2012. My second book, Court and Bowled: tales of cricket and the law, was published, again by Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, in 2014. Also in 2014 the book Cases that Changed Our Lives, vol 2, was published by LexisNexis. I was the joint editor and contributed both chapter introductions and an essay on religion and the law. My third book was Trials & Tribulations: Uncommon Tales of the Common Law, once more published by Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, in 2015. In 2017, a second edition of Court and Bowled was published. In 2018 I published Noble Savages: The Savage Club and the Great War 1914-18, a history of members of London's Savage Club during the First World War. In 2020 the paperback/coffee table version of Noble Savages was published, with many more pictures and a small amount of extra text.
​
My most recent book is a biography of the famous English judge Lord Denning, published in March 2023.
​
I have been interviewed by Radio New Zealand on match-fixing in cricket and have been quoted by different newspapers as well - see the Media tab above.
​
More recently, I have been asked by my university to provide a short biographical sketch explaining how I came to write Lord Denning's biography. The note I produced can be read here.
​
In May 2024, I was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
​
"James Wilson writes intelligent and useful posts on many of the key legal issues"
Adam Wagner, editor,
"Wilson uses the traditional skills of the lawyer to dissect the intricacies of the Laws of Cricket and the Spirit of the Game"
- Robert Griffiths QC
In 1979, The Advocates Society welcomed Lord Tom Denning to Toronto. He was on a tour publicizing his latest book. I was gifted The Discipline of Law as a call to the bar gift shortly after.
Forty-five years on—and a quarter century after the world-famous jurist’s death at 100—James Wilson’s new biography is an excellent and thorough review of the still relevant, and always controversial jurist. Wilson himself practices law in New Zealand and the U.K., and is an accomplished writer on legal topics, including exploring legal cases around the game of cricket. The result is not only a highly readable biography but an excellent reference source on the innumerable areas of the law that Denning contributed to developing.
​
The book’s 23 chapters extensively cover Denning’s life and upbringing and every stage of his legal career. These are preceded by the book’s opening, which includes quotes about him and by him (never overly modest!) Among the mostly glowing accolades is a comment from Reuben Hassan, Professor Emeritus at Osgoode Hall Law School, who opines that Lord Denning “fell considerably short of the stature of a great judge (or jurist).” The late-Lord Brooke declares him as “rather a discredited figure.”
Through an examination of the man’s life and times, Wilson gives us insight into what drove both Denning’s innovation as well as his often moralistic, judgmental rigidness. His strengths and weakness in many ways reflected the changing society of England during his long life. The book is also meticulously footnoted with a select bibliography of over ten pages including reports or works authored by Denning.
​
The last chapter, appropriately titled “A Final Judgement,” includes a critical analysis of Denning’s well known, catchy, succinct openings that he is so remembered for: “It all started in a public house,” or “ A man’s head got caught in a propeller.” While memorable, among other criticisms, the author suggests that putting the merits of the case up front with the facts was Denning’s way of getting the reader to agree with his decision.
In summary, Wilson has delivered a well-organized, readable, and interesting biography / legal-social history that should give a judicial reader both insight and knowledge of perhaps the most influential jurist of the modern era.