Is Eating People Wrong?

Great cases are those judicial decisions around which the common law develops. This book explores eight exemplary cases from the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia that show the law as a living, breathing and down-the-street experience. It explores the social circumstances in which the cases arose and the ordinary people whose stories influenced and shaped the law as well as the characters and institutions (lawyers, judges and courts) that did much of the heavy lifting. By examining the consequences and fallout of these decisions, the book depicts the common law as an experimental, dynamic, messy, productive, tantalizing and bottom-up process, thereby revealing the diverse and uncoordinated attempts by the courts to adapt the law to changing conditions and shifting demands. Great cases are one way to glimpse the workings of the common law as an untidy but stimulating exercise in human judgment and social accomplishment.

ISBN 0521188512   Pages 260 ISBN13 9780521188517 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 410 Publisher Cambridge University Press   Published in Cambridge Imprint Cambridge University Press   Height (mm) 228 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 152 Publication date 30 Nov 2010   Spine width (mm) 15 DEWEY 340.115   Academic level Postgraduate DEWEY edition DC22

		Preface
1		In Praise of Great Cases: The Big, the Bad, and the Goodly		1
2		Is Eating People Wrong? The Law and Lore of the Sea		13
3		Bearing Witness: In Support of the Rule of Law		41
4		In the Hunt: Power, Property, and Possession		67
5		Shades of Brown: A Constitutional Catharsis		89
6		A Snail in a Bottle: Nature, Neighbors, and Negligence		115
7		An Aboriginal Title: The Lie and Law of the Land		141
8		Grinding at the Mill: Putting Limits on Agreements		165
9		Of Crimes and Cautions: The Rights and Rites of Investigation		191
10		Coming Up for Air: The Common Law at 2010		215
		Bibliography		223
		Index		231

"The law lives through people and their stories - and Allan Hutchinson has captured some of the most remarkable legal stories of the last two centuries in this book... The details are memorable, often funny, and sometimes tragic. English speaking peoples are still united by a common legal tradition, and these stories ... unite us by reminding the reader what it means for humans to argue and resolve their disputes through judgment." - Noah Feldman Bemis Professor of Law, Harvard Law School and author of Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices "Combining great story telling with insightful legal analysis, Hutchinson provides readers with fascinating human dramas and historical insights while engaging them in a wide-ranging investigation of the nature and significance of law. Rarely has a 'must-read' been this much fun!" - Andrew Petter President and Vice-Chancellor, Simon Fraser University "Although this is most obviously an almost perfect book to give any aspiring law student, it can be read with enjoyment and profit by general readers and legal academics alike." - Sanford Levinson Professor of Law, University of Texas Law School "A law degree will take three years of your life and a big chunk out of your bank account. This book promises to turn anyone into a font of legal opinion and trivia in a fraction of the time and cost. ... The 'great cases' are lively and educational in equal parts." - Peter Shawn Taylor Maclean's "Also worth reading is a book that just landed in my mailbox with the charming title Is Eating People Wrong? The author, Canadian scholar Allan C. Hutchinson, picks eight 'great cases' that help explain how the law in English-speaking nations works. For non-lawyers who want an introduction to the judge-made system we call the common law, this book is the ideal primer." - Daniel Fisher Forbes.com "Highly readable and engaging; one is quickly drawn into the human stories that underlie the litigation. ... The author amply fulfills his goal of persuading the reader that 'great cases are one way to glimpse the workings of the common law as an untidy but stimulating exercise in human judgment and social accomplishment." - Philip Girard Literary Review of Canada "Hutchinson's writing is mercifully free of legal jargon, and his ability to quickly and simply sketch out the historical and social context of each case is superb. ... [His] accessible and entertaining book will be appreciated by any reader wanting perspective on how the law impacts society, and vice versa." - Paul Challen Quill and Quire

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Version	Price	Published	Edition
Hardback	£63.00	2010