Jurisprudence

Benjamin Bestgen and Alexander Jeuk discuss the practicalities of rebalancing the scales of justice making the legal system accessible to everyone. The complaint that the law tends to favour the wealthy and powerful while being much less available to the impecunious is not new. And there is much evi

Are you looking for a stocking filler for the lover of legal philosophy in your life? Or perhaps you just want them to stop talking about it. In any case, rejoice, for SLN's jurisprudential primer series has been turned into a book – just in time for Christmas.

The eminent legal philosopher Joseph Raz passed away on Monday at the age of 83. "Joseph Raz was born in 1939 in Mandate Palestine. Encouraged in his youthful intellectual pursuits by his father, an electrician, he grew up in a house with no books except his own. Raz studied law at the Hebrew Univer

All good things must come to an end: in this, the 52nd and final of Benjamin Bestgen's jurisprudential primers, he discusses policing. Watch this space, however, as we plan to offer the series in a more permanent form. See his last primer here. Policing has been a controversial occupation proba

Benjamin Bestgen this week encourages lawyers to consider the craft of writing. See his last jurisprudential primer here. George Orwell opined in 1946 that written English “is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble&

Benjamin Bestgen examines the impact of "respectability" in criminal trials. See last week's jurisprudential primer here. Tropes like the “Gentleman Thief” pick up on the allure of the white-collar criminal: a person who appears respectable, educated, even charming. A worldly, cleve

This week Benjamin Bestgen looks at the legalities surrounding certain extracurricular activities. See last week's here. Every law student in the UK has probably heard of R v Brown [1993] UKHL 19 during their studies. The case concerned a group of men who had occasionally gathered for consensual, bu

"If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out" and if he breaks another's bone, his shall be broken. So states Hammurabi's Code, an ancient exemplar of the precept of lex talionis. Why is revenge so compelling? Benjamin Bestgen explains all. See his last jurisprudential primer h

"Oh, sinnerman, where you gonna run to? Sinnerman where you gonna run to?" sang Nina Simone of those who flee judgement. But even the ends of the Earth were no safe haven for Adolf Eichmann. Benjamin Bestgen tells the tale this week of the most famous rogue Nazi and his dramatic rendition to th

Benjamin Bestgen takes a look this week at robotic weapons and the law. See last week's primer here. Killer robots, or “Lethal Autonomous Weapons” (LAWs), have been in our popular conscience for decades. Science fiction fans are familiar with Isaac Asimov’s Laws of Robotics and mos

"Usura rusteth the chisel/It rusteth the craft and the craftsman", wrote Ezra Pound. Benjamin Bestgen this week explains the practice of usury. See last week's primer here. In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice we encounter two people lending money: the Christian merchant Antonio and the Jew

Benjamin Bestgen asks us this week to consider just prices. See last week's jurisprudential primer here. Caricatures of fatcat lawyers and greedy shysters lining their pockets through frivolous claims and overcharging clients have linked the legal profession unflatteringly with money for centur

Sorry seems to be the hardest word, which is why the law has gotten involved in recent years. Benjamin Bestgen reflects on an early injustice and the value of apologies. See last week's jurisprudential primer here. I recall an episode in primary school in which another kid teased and pestered me and

What's in a legal system? Benjamin Bestgen supplies the principal ingredients. See his last primer here. Last week’s article ended with lawyer and author Christopher Brown’s suggestion that fantasy authors could do more to make law and legal systems an explicit focus point in their works

In the thirtieth article in Scottish Legal News' jurisprudential primer series, Benjamin Bestgen takes a look at fictional legal systems. See his last entry here. Early readers of this series may recall my article about depictions of law in utopian fiction. What stood out was that utopian write