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Against the Law: Why Justice Requires Fewer Laws and a Smaller State
One of Britain’s leading barristers argues for a world in which the law should play a smaller part in all our lives.
Understanding the main political projects of our times, and their plans to expand or shrink the law, is the first step towards achieving greater equality and averting climate disaster.
Since 2016, Britain has been ruled by populists, who promise to expand democracy and shrink the law by taking back power from the European Union. Yet what these populists have actually done in power is institute a vast increase in new laws, made by ministers and not Parliament, regulating every aspect of our lives.
This move of promising less law while actually expanding it, has been characteristic of our lives for forty years, ever since the neoliberal counter-revolution. Every year, new criminal offences are created; new regulations are introduced.
Renton’s book dares us to imagine a world in which workers are winning, and ecocide treated with the urgency that it deserves. These changes can only come about, he argues, if the movements of the oppressed choose to disengage from the law.
Understanding the main political projects of our times, and their plans to expand or shrink the law, is the first step towards achieving greater equality and averting climate disaster.
Since 2016, Britain has been ruled by populists, who promise to expand democracy and shrink the law by taking back power from the European Union. Yet what these populists have actually done in power is institute a vast increase in new laws, made by ministers and not Parliament, regulating every aspect of our lives.
This move of promising less law while actually expanding it, has been characteristic of our lives for forty years, ever since the neoliberal counter-revolution. Every year, new criminal offences are created; new regulations are introduced.
Renton’s book dares us to imagine a world in which workers are winning, and ecocide treated with the urgency that it deserves. These changes can only come about, he argues, if the movements of the oppressed choose to disengage from the law.
262 pages, Paperback
Published July 12, 2022
35 people want to read
About the author
David Renton
53 books18 followersDavid "Dave" Renton is a British academic historian and barrister.
He was born in London in 1972. His great aunt was the marxist historian, Dona Torr. His grandfather was the shoe designer Kurt Geiger. One uncle was an activist in Equity, the actors' trade union, while another was the Conservative MP Tim Renton, Baron Renton of Mount Harry. He was educated at all-boys private boarding school Eton College where he became a member of the Labour Party. He then studied history at St John's College, University of Oxford.
Renton received his PhD from the University of Sheffield for a thesis on fascism and anti-fascism in Britain after the Second World War ( The attempted revival of British Fascism: Fascism and Anti-Fascism, 1945-51 ) that was turned into the book Fascism, Anti-Fascism and the 1940s . He also became an academic historian and sociologist, teaching at universities including Nottingham Trent, Edge Hill and Rhodes University and Johannesburg University in South Africa.
Since 2009 Renton has practised as a barrister at Garden Court Chambers in London and has represented clients in a number of high-profile cases, especially concerning trade union rights and the protection of free speech.
He was for twenty-two years (1991-2013) a member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and he has published over twenty books on fascism, anti-fascism, and the politics of the left.
He was born in London in 1972. His great aunt was the marxist historian, Dona Torr. His grandfather was the shoe designer Kurt Geiger. One uncle was an activist in Equity, the actors' trade union, while another was the Conservative MP Tim Renton, Baron Renton of Mount Harry. He was educated at all-boys private boarding school Eton College where he became a member of the Labour Party. He then studied history at St John's College, University of Oxford.
Renton received his PhD from the University of Sheffield for a thesis on fascism and anti-fascism in Britain after the Second World War ( The attempted revival of British Fascism: Fascism and Anti-Fascism, 1945-51 ) that was turned into the book Fascism, Anti-Fascism and the 1940s . He also became an academic historian and sociologist, teaching at universities including Nottingham Trent, Edge Hill and Rhodes University and Johannesburg University in South Africa.
Since 2009 Renton has practised as a barrister at Garden Court Chambers in London and has represented clients in a number of high-profile cases, especially concerning trade union rights and the protection of free speech.
He was for twenty-two years (1991-2013) a member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and he has published over twenty books on fascism, anti-fascism, and the politics of the left.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 11, 2023
David Renton makes a passionate and convincing argument that the growing size and complexity of the legal system has increased the number of legal rights while, at the same time, decreasing access to those rights. As such, Renton argues, the left ought to take up the fight for a simplified legal system (i.e. for a smaller state and fewer laws).
The book has three main components. The first is a history of the development of right wing approaches to the law, explaining how libertarian, conservative, liberal, and fascist thinkers have approached the law and how these approaches have shaped the legal system. Secondly, Renton describes the contradictions within the British legal system. He shows how over the course of the last half century the number of laws on the books have dramatically increased while the ability for the average Brit to enjoy these rights have diminished. He particularly looks at housing and employment law to drive this point home. Finally, the book puts forward a platform, or the beginnings of a platform, for the left to take up in order to reform the legal system into one which is more fair and just.
As a lawyer and a leftist I felt that I was reading two different books at the same time. The first was a strong history of the British legal system and an a good overview of different approaches to legal theory. The second was a rallying cry for change and upheaval based on a critique of British politics. This later argument was convincing but often meant that the former was left behind. In some ways I wish Renton had written two books, one which could have acted as his political thesis calling for fewer laws, and the later acting as a Marxist critique of the law (something which is exceedingly rare).
The book has three main components. The first is a history of the development of right wing approaches to the law, explaining how libertarian, conservative, liberal, and fascist thinkers have approached the law and how these approaches have shaped the legal system. Secondly, Renton describes the contradictions within the British legal system. He shows how over the course of the last half century the number of laws on the books have dramatically increased while the ability for the average Brit to enjoy these rights have diminished. He particularly looks at housing and employment law to drive this point home. Finally, the book puts forward a platform, or the beginnings of a platform, for the left to take up in order to reform the legal system into one which is more fair and just.
As a lawyer and a leftist I felt that I was reading two different books at the same time. The first was a strong history of the British legal system and an a good overview of different approaches to legal theory. The second was a rallying cry for change and upheaval based on a critique of British politics. This later argument was convincing but often meant that the former was left behind. In some ways I wish Renton had written two books, one which could have acted as his political thesis calling for fewer laws, and the later acting as a Marxist critique of the law (something which is exceedingly rare).
Displaying 1 of 1 review