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12 August 2020 / Harry Potter
Categories: Features , Constitutional law
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Book review: Anglo-American Law: A Comparison

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"As much an argument as a disquisition, and full of amusing asides, it pulls no punches about the danger of judicial activism..."

Author: Michael Arnheim
Publisher: Talbot Publishing
 ISBN: 9781616196325
 Price: £70 hb, £7.98 ebook

From the author of The US Constitution for Dummies, this book is in similar vein and covers some of the same material. It provides a comparative overview of the legal systems in England and America, accompanied by many analyses of cases mainly relating to torts, privacy and human rights. Criminal law is absent. 

As much an argument as a disquisition, and full of amusing asides, it pulls no punches about the danger of judicial activism which is rife in both jurisdictions. Almost every page is thought-provoking and contentious. The main thesis is that in England, beginning with the case of Donoghue v Stephenson in 1932 (‘the year of the snail’ as Arnheim calls it), legal principle has been increasingly sacrificed to judicial law-making.

The issue of judicial encroachment into the sovereignty of parliament is currently a live one in the UK. In the

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