Reviews

Robert Shiels is impressed by a new history of opium which paints a fascinating picture of an ancient trade with a profound impact on modern society. Opium has its own history and this discursive study by novelist Amitav Ghosh, moving into factual history, concentrates on individual aspects of the o

Connor Beaton delivers his verdict on French legal drama Anatomy of a Fall.

Robert Shiels commends a new biography of the comic genius who fell victim to the USA's post-war red scare. This attractively produced book, with many photographs, is a social, political and cultural history of a crucial period in the life of an influential 20th century figure, an original and indep

Professor Joseph Bristow’s impressive new study, which deserves close attention, shows that the civil libel suit and the criminal trials involving Oscar Wilde were understood to be within the legal procedures of the time, writes Robert Shiels. The significantly wider importance of his book may

Douglas Thomson reviews a new book by Ian O'Donnell, professor of criminology at University College Dublin, examining four very different prison regimes. In this book, Professor Ian O'Donnell visits and investigates four very different prison environments, all considerably unlike those within the ma

This small book, with a big title, is commendable in several ways: it shows quite how many courts or tribunals and different types of case a member of the Bar, in the author’s generation at least, might have had to deal with. The nature and extent of the pressing political and legal issues tha

When President Higgins last month made an unprecedented political intervention in defence of Irish neutrality, Conor Gallagher must have been jumping for joy. The Irish Times correspondent's new book – Is Ireland Neutral? The Many Myths of Irish Neutrality – could not have been better ti

There is an aphorism to the effect that history is past politics, and politics is present history. In this study, journalist Phil Tinline considers some of the events, over the first century of mass democracy, when politics lurched from crisis to crisis. The aim is see how this history of political

The criminal trial of Marshal Philippe Pétain in Paris in 1945 was that of the highest ranking military officer accused of treason, in having betrayed his country by collaboration with the enemy. The contrast in personal fortunes was extreme: Pétain had, as supreme commander of French

A psychonaut, according to a dictionary, is someone who explores altered states of consciousness, especially through hallucinatory drugs. The term apparently originates from 1970 when one author described the psychedelic, drug-induced experiences with his friend. Mike Jay is a historian of

The many, and systematically horrible, events in the southern states of America over many years in the middle of the last century are described in Margaret Burnham’s new book By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners. The phrase ‘Jim Crow’ is an American shorthand for

There’s no denying that Jodie Comer's West End début, brought to cinemas yesterday by National Theatre Live, is electrifying. From the moment she walks on stage as Tessa, a confident criminal defence lawyer on the verge of greatness at the London bar, Comer demands nothing less than rap

Christopher Stanley, litigation consultant at KRW LAW LLP in Belfast, offers a timely review of a new book documenting the campaign for victims and survivors of Magdalene laundries. For almost 15 years I have practised law predominantly concerned with addressing the human rights deficit created by t

Fed up of endlessly trawling through Netflix for something decent to watch? We’ve decided to help you out with occasional recommendations.

Barrister and lecturer Ruth Cannon recommends a new book on the funding of the Irish war of independence. There is a saying that money isn't everything, but everything requires money. The new counter-state set up by Sinn Féin in 1919 certainly did, if only to pay judicial salaries in its alte