Law
Latest articles
- Justice Needs an Audience That Can Follow the Plot
Opening the courtroom door is only the beginning. Public scrutiny depends on making the proceedings intelligible. - The Trouble with Wanting Every Case to Change Everything
An individual dispute may expose a wider wrong. It cannot always carry the whole burden of reform.
New essays
- The Rule Written After the Act
A society that changes its standards must still distinguish learning from retrospective punishment. - The Citizen Who Cannot Prove a Negative
The presumption of innocence asks authority to bear the difficulty of making its accusation good. - When a Hearing Becomes a Spectacle
Public scrutiny protects justice, but an audience can develop appetites that scrutiny does not require.
New essays
- The People Missing from the Settlement
A settlement can end a dispute while leaving its most important question unanswered: what happens to the next person? - The Innocent Record
A record can be accurate sentence by sentence and still tell an unfair story. - A Punishment without an Ending
Proportion requires attention to consequences that continue after a formal penalty ends. - When Consent Must Last Longer than a Signature
An agreement made at the beginning cannot settle every question about what happens later. - The Courage to Give a Narrow Answer
A decision can be principled without pretending to settle more than the evidence permits.
Essays on access to justice, evidence, fair procedures and accountability. Read alongside landmark decisions to explore the distance between a right on paper and a right someone can use.
Explore landmark English judgments and US Supreme Court decisions.
Essays
- The Price of Being Heard
Why equal procedures can demand unequal resources, and what a fair hearing requires beyond a right to speak.
- When the Rule Has Done Its Job
An essay on the limits of procedural fairness and the responsibility to exercise judgement after the rules have been followed.
- The Burden of Explaining Yourself
Who must explain themselves, and at what cost? An essay on evidence, unequal demands and meaningful participation in a fair process.
- The File and the Person
How administrative records can leave out the person they describe, and why orderly information still needs careful interpretation.
- The Shape of a Remedy
Putting something right requires deciding what the injury was.
- A Rule for the Exceptional Day
How institutions can allow flexibility without making fairness depend on favour.
- The Problem with a Perfect Witness
Why credibility should not depend on appearing untouched by an experience.
Short notes
- The Language of Permission
What changes when a request becomes a claim to an explanation.
- Reasons That Can Be Answered
A useful explanation leaves room for a useful response.
- An Apology without a Subject
Regret becomes thinner when the action disappears from the sentence.
- The Distance between Private and Secret
Confidentiality needs a purpose that survives explanation.
- The Second Reader
Review matters when another person is allowed to see differently.
- When Delay Becomes an Answer
An unresolved request still changes the life around it.
A little room for longer thinking, every week
One thoughtful email each week: an illustrated essay, a reading recommendation and a question worth considering.