Title: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken
Writer: Anonymous author known as “The Secret Barrister”
Year of publication: 2018
Review: The Secret Barrister, an anonymous criminal advocate, takes the reader on a tour to the courtroom and walks them through the different stages of a criminal case. By doing so, the author pinpoints the failures and loopholes of the English and Welsh criminal system. The historical perspective taken allows the reader to understand the whole English legal system better. One of the greatest deficiencies of the system lies in the fact that so-called “magistrates” convict others of crimes with no competence in the legal field. They are eligible to sit in a courtroom by only completing an 18-hour-long crash course on law, volunteering and having no legal background whatsoever. While the author explicitly talks about the workings of law in England and Wales, it is not only a criticism of the legal system but the system at large. A system that advocates for democracy and justice on the surface but as one digs deeper, he finds that it fails to “practice what it preaches.” Insightful and truly gripping, Rostra’s Choice.
It is to be underlined that Rostra was not incentivized to promote this book in any way, and this suggestion is not necessarily representative of the opinions of the Rostra team, but only of the editor of this article.
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