THE IPKAT BOOK OF THE MONTH: SEPTEMBER 2003

Ian Cram is a Lecturer in Law at the University of Leeds, England. His book, A Virtue Less Cloistered: Courts, Speech and Constitutions, addresses the issues raised by the conflict between, on the one hand, “open justice” -- the media’s right to report and comment on litigation -- and, on the other hand, the administration of justice and the privacy of the individual. Cram’s approach is to compare the constitutional treatment of this conflict by contrasting the position taken in four common law jurisdictions: the US, the UK, Australia and Canada. The author does not however neglect civil law jurisdictions, paying particular attention to the experiences of Spain. Published by Hart Publishing (Oxford and Portland, Oregon), the book is short by modern legal standards, with only around 220 pages of substantive text. Yet it is strong on detail and analysis. What’s more, its conclusions address court-related speech in the electronic age, dealing with the role which the Internet has come to play in the provision of access to, and dissemination of, information which it was once -- in practical terms -- quite straightforward for courts to control.

The IPKat enjoyed reading this book. As well as providing a narrow case-and-statute based legal analysis, the author looks closely and thoughtfully at the contribution of thinkers such as Mill, Bickel, Dworkin and Scanlon as well. It is definitely a thinking cat’s book, well worth the effort of reading.