The Critical Lawyers' Handbook

A handbook written by critical lawyers throughout the country, which provides students, teachers and practitioners of law with a guide to critical legal theory and practice. The book begins with approaches to critical theory with the contributors sharing the concern to relocate legal rules within their socio-political context. The legal education system is critiqued as a training for hierarchy and the hidden assumptions behind the standard texts for tort, criminal, property, contract, company, labour, constitutional and European law are exposed with the aim of providing students with the necessary critical weapons to assess "black letter" doctrinal teaching. A section on critical practice seeks to identify the relationship between critical theory and practice and offers not only a critique of orthodox practice but also a discussion of the possibilities and limits of a critical practice. A practical guide to setting up Critical Lawyers' Groups and Community Legal Advice Centres is included alongside a discussion of the political issues inherent in the giving of free legal advice. The problem of identifying the possibilities of critical practice at the Bar and in "soliciting" is addressed through an alternative guide to solicitors' firms and bar chambers.