Fighting for Political Freedom: Comparative Studies of the Legal Complex and Political Liberalism by Terence C. Halliday, Lucien Karpik, and Malcolm M. Feeley, eds.

Authors

  • Robert Russo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/alr330

Abstract

Most mainstream media coverage of lawyers tends to focus on individual court rulings or spectacular cases of individual character deficiencies within the legal profession. Consequently, society in general has formed a world view that tends to overlook the role of legal actors in struggling for basic rights in all except the most exceptional cases. Fighting For Political Freedom: Comparative Studies of the Legal Complex and Political Liberalism thus fills an essential gap in providing a view into worlds where “ordinary” members of the legal complex regularly play pivotal roles in advancing the causes of liberal society. The book frames its arguments by defining a “legal complex” whose core is composed of lawyers and judges, but extends far beyond this to include all legally trained personnel in a society, including civil servants and prosecutors involved in administering justice. The most impressive contribution made by this book is the universality of the theory of the legal complex’s relationship to political liberalism, and the application of the theory through a collection of case studies spanning four continents. The 16 case studies in the book provide a particularly useful reference guide for academics and human rights activists in the struggle to establish or protect basic human rights in a wide variety of countries.

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Published

2009-10-01

Issue

Vol 47, No 1

Section

Book Reviews

License

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