Outlaw: Six Lessons for a Brave New World

by C.L. Skach

'When a renowned constitutional scholar explains why the law is not enough and is sometimes even the problem, we need to listen'
PETER GRAY, AUTHOR OF FREE TO LEARN

'Skach convincingly tells us that laws and rules are not sufficient for living together in peace'
CARLO ROVELLI, AUTHOR OF SEVEN BRIEF LESSONS ON PHYSICS

'This book will help you understand the mess we're in while providing a roadmap for a better future'
BEN RAWLENCE

We believe that rules and laws are in place to protect us. They are what keep our societies from descending into chaos. Without them, how would we know our right from wrong, live comfortably in our communities and be good neighbours to one another?

C.L. Skach feels differently. She always believed in the strength of the law - she spent her career in some of the most fractured, war-torn corners of the world, reading and writing constitutions to help fix society. But as she sat alone in a sandbagged trailer in Baghdad after a rocket attack, she admitted what she'd been denying for a good society cannot be imposed from above. It comes from leaning less on formal rules, and more on each other.

Skach lays out six ideas, informed by everything from civil wars to civil rights struggles, bystander responsibility to mutual aid in the pandemic, to help us build small societies of our own. These ideas sometimes sound share the vegetables from your garden, spend time on a park bench. But taken together they can amount to real, bottom-up change.

Outlaw is a hopeful handbook for a better world - one we can all help build together.

280 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 27, 2025

About the author

C. L. Skach (Cindy Skach) is Professor of Political Science at the University of Bologna, and Emeritus Professor of Law, King’s College London. She was previously Professor of Comparative Government and Law at the University of Oxford and Associate Professor of Government, Harvard University. Having spent decades researching and writing about constitutions and other legal frameworks, advising governments as they amended, or drafted new, constitutions, Skach then began questioning our rigid fascination with the law, and our heavy reliance on it to solve social problems.

Reviews

[Nancy Breyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Thucydides warned that human nature was always ready to offend even where laws exist. And, in saying this, I become a heretic in the world of law and order, a world that I have been a defender of for decades. Because it is with human nature instead that we must begin and do the hard work"


Chapter 6: Eat Ethnic Food, Regularly.

Change can be as easy as sharing a meal - fighting prejudice and bridging the gap between our differences by doing what brings us together.

Very approachable read on law, political and social sciences, offering lots of easily applicable everyday changes to our lives.

C. L. Skach stretches our understanding of what it means to be a citizen, of living together. This book is a wake-up call to take small but significant steps towards each other instead of waiting for anyone to do the work for us.

It questions how effective government really is in bringing us together, arguing that significant improvement can only happen if the work comes from within the community, not from laws that are being imposed from the top down.

A great reminder of our civic duty and the responsibility we all share to make the world a better and more equitable space.

It is revolutionary in its simplicity.

[Steven Errington · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit outside my usual reading zone but enjoyable. I found myself fully behind the ideas and theses in the book, but the pessimist in me struggled to see how the world would fall in line with them. I found the points were easy to follow, with support from anecdotes and experiences. The concluding chapter helped end on a high and gave a glimmer of hope for the future.