Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer Free Ebook

FREEMEMOIRS OF A RADICAL LAWYER EBOOK Michael Mansfield | 512 pages | 08 Nov 2011 | Bloomsbury Publishing PLC | 9781408801291 | English | London, United Kingdom The Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer, By Michael Mansfield | The Independent This website uses cookies to help us give you the best experience when you visit our website. By continuing to use this website, you consent to our use of these cookies. Memoirs of a Radical Lawyerthe American lawyer, Clarence Darrow, achieved notoriety for his successful defence of the teenage thrill-killers, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. His argument against imposing the death penalty on the basis of insanity secured Darrow's reputation as "the Great Defender". Setting out his motivation in22 years before the trial, Darrow stated that "liberty is the most jealous and exacting mistress that can beguile the brain and soul of man". The unorthodox career of civil rights barrister Michael Mansfield has undoubtedly been influenced by a similar dedication to the cause of liberty. Both men are characterised by the same spirited fascination with defending the Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer indefensible, and conducting trials where the press and public have pre-determined the guilt of the accused. Now Mansfield has chosen to put an end to his criminal defence practice after 42 years as a persistent thorn in the side of the Establishment. The publication Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer his memoirs presents his final closing speech before the court of public opinion. It provides a fascinating insight into the mind of a man who has devoted his life to securing the liberty of others. Born just two years after the death Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer Darrow, Mansfield grew up in Finchley, in domestic circumstances which gave little indication of his eventual anti-Establishment stance. An incident in which his mother was wrongly accused of a minor parking offence Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer credited by Mansfield as the start of a deeply-held distrust of authority. At eighteen he went to study philosophy at Keele under the empiricist Professor Antony Flew, who imbued in Mansfield a sense of both the importance and Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer of scientific method. Mansfield was called to the Bar inwhere, despite Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer initial training in a prosecution-orientated chambers, he quickly established himself as a passionate and effective defence advocate. In many respects, the purpose of a trial is to freeze a moment in time, in order to conduct a postmortem in the clinical setting of a courtroom. Events can be taken apart Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer analysed for emotion and motivation. It can then be at least partially reconstructed with the help of eyewitnesses and the tools of forensic science. Mansfield sets out his approach, always focusing on the weakest link in the chain of the prosecution's argument, whether it be forcibly extracted confessions, or unreliable scientific evidence. These memoirs benefit from a career spent at the heart of some of the most controversial criminal cases of the past Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer decades, including those of Barry George, the Birmingham Six, the "Ricin" trial and the posthumous appeal of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the UK. Mansfield has also undertaken a large number of high-profile inquiries, from Bloody Sunday to the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes. It is in the transcripts of his cross-examinations where the book really comes alive. John Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer once recalled his father's advice that "the art of cross-examination is not the art of examining crossly". Similarly, Mansfield's handling of witnesses shows a deftness and lightness of touch, combined with an unrelenting grasp of the underlying details. His style is reminiscent of Darrow's approach during his great cross-examination of the evangelist preacher-turned prosecutor, William Jennings Bryan, during the "Scopes Monkey Trial", which was credited with the premature demise of Bryan shortly after the trial. During the long months of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, it was Mansfield's patient questioning of "Soldier F" which uncovered his vital admission of having shot the unarmed Barney McGuigan. He became so notorious for his dissection of witnesses, that "being Mansfielded" entered the police lexicon for those who were subjected to the ordeal. Mansfield has always prided himself on taking a different approach to his involvement in cases. Whilst his fellow barristers stuck to the prevailing orthodoxy of detached involvement with those they represent, Mansfield invests himself personally in each case. Although this imbues his reminiscences with an undeniable emotional intensity, it does lead to the occasional lapse of perspective. In particular, the re-telling of his work for Mohamed al Fayed during the Diana inquest betrays a streak of paranoia. In an interview with the Guardian inhe said "this cannot be an accident. Mansfield goes on to reveal in the book that "I found it difficult simply to accept that what happened in the Alma Tunnel in Para was 'just one of those tragic things'. Of course it might well have been, but that's what 'they' Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer hope we will think". At the outcome of the inquest, the coroner Lord Justice Scott Baker, noted acidly that parts of Fayed's case had been "demonstrably without foundation". Despite these difficulties, Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer is, on the whole, tightly written, and, despite its length, manages to distil his cases down to their central issues with a minimum of jargon, making it an enjoyable read. At the climax of his first defence speech in 80 BC, Cicero questioned the public interest surrounding the trial: "Perhaps it is the fact that my client is being properly defended that makes you feel so outraged. Sign up. You are browsing in private mode. Thom Dyke is a pupil barrister at Hardwicke Building. Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer Ga direct naar de inhoudhet zoekveld of het hoofdmenu. E-book voor. Unafraid of rejection or failure, Michael has taken on the most difficult and challenging cases of our times and despite the odds, won plenty. In Memoirs of Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer Radical Lawyer Michael dissects many of them, revealing his motivations, meticulous approach to forensic science, cross examination techniques, the political Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer and emotional reactions with clarity, subtlety and charm. Interspersed with personal anecdotes and recollections, this insightful book is liberally laced with Michael's quirky brand of anarchic humour. Issues of public concern, human rights and innovative attempts to construct a democratic legal system are discussed in full, but Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer also unveils with honesty and wit a man who has put as much passion and energy into his life as his work, one of the great personalities of our time. Boeken lenen: hoe werkt het? Zoeken in de catalogus Zoeken binnen de site. Michael Mansfield Memoirs of a radical lawyer E-book voor. Je kunt dit boek lenen als je lid bent van de Bibliotheek. Inloggen Boeken lenen: Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer werkt het? Klantenservice Vragen of hulp nodig? Lid worden Contact. Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer by Michael Mansfield | Book review | Law | The Guardian It has been suggested that he has rather enjoyed basking in the limelight all these years. A sort of Michael Moore figure of the legal circuit, filled with his own hubris, who occasionally moonlights on the 6 O'Clock News as the great public defender of the age. Anyone you care to mention who has had a grievance against the state or big business, or who has appealed successfully against a conviction — the Birmingham Six, Barry George acquitted on appeal of the murder of Jill Dandothe families of the Marchioness disaster, the family of Stephen Lawrence, Arthur Scargill, and most recently Mohammed Fayed, at the inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed — have been Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer by Michael Mansfield. But to Mansfield's credit, there's not much vanity or swagger in this exhaustively chronicled memoir of a year career at the Bar. It is rather the burning desire to overturn injustice, a love of the underdog, and reassuringly, a love of the law, not his remarkable career, that is most striking. His reputation could easily have been shredded inwhen Mansfield agreed to represent the Price sisters. None of his colleagues wanted to take the case. Even his mother believed it "unthinkable" that he was representing Irish terrorists. Since then he has built a matchless reputation for taking the establishment to task, and asking uncomfortable questions about how the authorities run things. Mansfield's radicalism emanates principally from being a bleeding-heart liberal, but he also has a singular approach to practising law. That is what I was told when I started, and that is what I have always tried to ignore. Although emotional responses can be very difficult to handle, I believe that to deny them in your working life is as ridiculous as denying them in your personal one. He keeps a photo of Angela Cannings the woman who was given a life sentence for shaking her two children to deathand her newborn son in his wigs box. Mansfield was able to overturn the conviction by convincing the Court of Appeal that the evidence of the paediatrician Sir Roy Meadow was unreliable. It is these personal reminiscences that propel the book. In fact, it is difficult to think of anyone else outside government whose career has coincided with so many high-profile incidents and milestones. Mansfield thinks it highly plausible that Jill Dando was murdered in revenge for the Nato bombing of Belgrade inwhich Memoirs of a Radical Lawyer a Serbian TV personality.

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