Staff Publications

The Legal Philosophy of Jeremy Bentham by Guillaume Tusseau

“Gathering together an impressive array of legal scholars from around the world, this book features essays on Jeremy Bentham’s major legal theoretical treatise, Of the Limits of the Penal Branch of Jurisprudence, reassessing Bentham’s theories of law as well as his impact on jurisprudence. While offering a suggestive picture of contemporary Bentham studies, the book provides a thorough examination of concepts such as legal discourse, legal norms, legal system, and subjective legal positions. The book compares Bentham’s approach with other landmark theories and the works of major legal philosophers including Austin, Hart and Kelsen, and explores Bentham’s treatise through major trends in contemporary legal thought, such as the imperative theory of law, deontic logic, Scandinavian and American legal realisms, the pure theory of law, and critical legal thought. Resisting any apologetic stance, the book elucidates how consistent with Bentham’s all-encompassing project of utilitarian reform ‘Limits’ turns out to be, and how this sheds light on contemporary modes of governance.” https://www.routledge.com/products/9781138020573

The book will be useful to students of contemporary jurisprudence, legal theory, 19th century philosophy, and public law.

The Triumph of the Country The Rural Community in 19th Century Jersey

first appeared in 1994, when it immediately became the leading text on the period. The book examines the challenges made to the Jersey rural community’s way of life in the 19th century, and the means it adopted to meet them. From the development of the parish organisation to the excesses of the Rose and Laurel political parties; from the rise of Methodism to the arrival of Catholicism; from the Jersey Cow to the Jersey ‘Royal’; this work is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the forces which shaped modern Jersey.

John Kelleher gained his PhD at the University of Warwick in 1992. He qualified as an Advocate of the Jersey Royal Court in 1994. He is a founding member of The Jersey and Guernsey Law Review and a prolific writer on Jersey history and law.

The book is available for pre-order, you can download the order form.

Democracy & the Human Right Act by Dennis Dixon

This book discusses the extent to which the UK Human Rights Act successfully balances protection of rights and democracy. It is generally accepted that the Act prevents government from violating fundamental rights, but the extent to which the Act can legitimately be overridden as a result of public opinion and participation is less clear.
 

Available in eBook and hardcopy from Routledge’s website.

Euroconstitutionalism and Its Discontents by Oliver Gerstenberg

This book addresses the question of social constitutionalism, especially with regard to its role in the contemporary European project.
 
For reasons of history and democracy, Europeans share a deep commitment to social constitutionalism. But in the contemporary European constitutional debate, constitutionalism and social democracy have become antagonists, with the survival of the one seeming to require sacrifice of the other. This book challenges the common view that constitutionalization means de-politicization. It argues that courts can exert a more indirect, creative, and agenda-setting role in the process of an ongoing clarification of the meaning of a right. The CJEU and the ECtHR—as courts beyond the nation state—are able constructively to re-open and re-politicize controversies that may appear settled at the national level in their constitutionalizing jurisprudence. And, crucially, our understanding of shared European constitutional principles is itself subject to revision and reconsideration as we accumulate experiences of dealing with diverse national contexts. By examining the jurisprudence of the CJEU and the ECtHR, the book demonstrates that in domain after domain, ranging from the protection of the vulnerable in the European social market to the guarantee of freedom of conscience, which in Europe emerged after many centuries of religious persecution, both courts can enhance and deepen democracy and thereby encourage the liberal project of constitutionalism beyond the state. Over time, once interpretive answers have become established in practice, courts can then move towards stronger forms of judicial intervention that consolidate best practice. It is this democratic and experimental process which lies at the heart of the distinctive model of contemporary Euroconstitutionalism.
 
Available on Amazon or at the OUP website.