LibGuides: ANU Law Unrequired Reading List: Law and justice

About

It seems obvious to include a Law and Justice category in a list of recommended books for law students. The pieces included in this list, however, are included to give your studies of the law some social and historical context.

Some items, such as The Justice Game by Geoffrey Robertson and The Alchemy of Race and Rights – Diary of a Law Professor by Patricia Williams, take you directly into the minds of the legal scholars who have influenced a generation of lawyers and legal thinkers. Others, like The Rule of Law by Tom Bingham remind us to consider for whom the rule of law was developed and analyse it from an outsider’s perspective.

Law & justice

The Rule of Law by Tom Bingham
Call Number: LAW KM34.B56 2011
Orwell Prize for Best Political Book - examines that the idea of the rule of law actually means.
The Problem of Social Cost by Ronald Coase
A journal article (said to be the most cited law review article in history), arguing that legal rules are only justified by reference to cost--benefit analysis.
A Theory of Justice by John Rawls
Call Number: CHIFLEY JC578 .R38 1999
In this substantial and interesting contribution to moral philosophy, John Rawls sets out the principles of justice that free and rational persons would accept in an initial position of equality.
The Justice Game by Geoffrey Robertson
Call Number: LAW KB15.R25A1 1998
Accounts of recent cases including the defence of a West London gym owner against the Prince of Wales, the Matrix Churchill affair, and the defence of the Guardian in the cash-for-questions affair.
Should Trees Have Standing? by Christopher D. Stone
Call Number: LAW KN95.6.S76 2010
Collection of essays on the legal rights of natural objects. Provides thought-provoking but accessible arguments at the intersection of environmental law, moral philosophy, ethics, legal theory, economics, political science, and globalization.
The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin
Call Number: LAW KL221.T66 2007
This book takes you into the chambers of the most important and secret legal body in the United States, the Supreme Court, and reveals the complex dynamic among the nine people who decide the law of the land.
Spheres of Justice by Michael Walzer
Call Number: CHIFLEY JC575.W34 1983
Argues in favour of the idea of "complex equality", and against the view that goods with different meaning and content can be lumped together into the larger category of primary goods, as is advocated by John Rawls.
The alchemy of race and rights by Patricia J. Williams
Call Number: LAW KL85.Q22W55 1991
Autobiographical essay about the intersection of race, gender and class, using tools of critical literary and legal theory.
Lectures on legal history by William John Victor Windeyer
Call Number: LAW KL401.W56 1957
A collection of essays illuminating the history of the common law, a standard text for generations of Australian law students. Painstaking researched and beautifully crafted in the characteristic literary style of Sir Victor Windeyer, later a Justice of the High Court of Australia.
Uluru statement from the heart
Statement on the First Nations National Constitutional Convention.
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
The UNDRIP was adopted by the General Assembly on Thursday, 13 September 2007, by a majority of 144 states in favour, 4 votes against (Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States) and 11 abstentions. In the years that have passed since the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the General Assembly. Since then, the four countries voting against have reversed their position and now support the Declaration.