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Description
Low as Culture is a beguilingly accessible, lively and engaging introduction to the law and to legal skills, complete with innovative exercises and even some cartoons. It gives students a framework for their subsequent legal study and professional life. It demystifies the language and culture of the law whilst building legal skills.
The book encourages independent critical thought. It highlights the ways in which law reflects social values and priorities, the place of law as one among many systems of social organisation and problem-solving, and the rise of lawyers as a subculture.
The jurisdictional reach of this new edition has been extended to look at cases and legislation from all Australian States. In addition, the text has been extensively revised to take account of recent developments such as the results of the 1999 Referendum on the Republic, the current debates about a Bill of Rights for Australia and the changing professional role of lawyers. Black/White relations has been introduced as a recurring theme - materials on Aboriginal Reconciliation, the Wik judgment and the legal and political debate over the Stolen Generations give continuity and perspective.
Low as Culture includes clear and accessible accounts of key jurisprudential issues and an extended introduction that sets out its pedagogical assumptions. There are cases and legislation from all Australian States, thorough referencing, and an annotated list of Further Reading in each chapter.
Kathy Laster's background combines law and social science. She has taught and written widely in a range of disciplines including law, history, criminology, public policy and cultural studies. Her last book, also published by The Federation Press, was The Drama of the Courtroom, an innovative teaching resource listing films with significant courtroom scenes, illustrating the dramatic and tactical aspects of adversarial practice, and demonstrating evidentiary rules in practice.
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Contents
1. Culture and Law
A - In-groups
B - Out-groups
2. Cultural Constitutis
A - Constitutions as Cultural Artefacts
B - The Australian Constitution
C - Constitutions for a Living Culture
D - An Australian Republic: A Case-study
3. Law-makers: Judges
A - Common Law Judges
B - Discovering Case Law
C - Evaluating Case Law
D - Judicial Law-making: A Case Study of the Mabo Decision
4. Law-makers: Parliament
A - The People as Law-makers
B - The Law-making Process
C - Making Prostitution Laws: A Case-study
D - Using Legislation
5. Legal Reasoning
A - Thinking Like a Common Lawyer
B - Common Law Problem-solving
C - Law as Science?
D - Law as Discipline
6. Language and Law
A - Legal Language
B - Power, Language and Law
C - Language Disadvantage in the Legal System
7. Ritual and Law
A - Adversarial Justice
B - Court as Symbol
C - Court Ceremonies
D - Court as Spectacle
E - Beyond Courts
F - Decentering Law
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