What We're Reading: Fake Law
Fake Law: The Truth About Justice in an Age of Lies
The anonymous Secret Barrister returns following their wildly popular debut, “The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken”, with a brilliant deep dive into the truth behind the headlines of legal stories that we have seen in recent years.
Fake Law: The Truth About Justice in an Age of Lies is a scathing account of media reporting on the law, and how, too often, outrage-inciting narratives directly exploit our common lack of knowledge and understanding of the mechanics of the legal system. The media’s power to dictate public opinion relies on a dearth of trustworthy and knowledgeable information about what the law actually says and how it works. What goes on within the courts? What changes to the law are being made? How is any of it practically applicable to us in our daily lives?
Despite the fact that the workings of the legal system are universally agreed to be a complex and mystifying topic, the Secret Barrister breaks it down for us in an impressively clear and simple style— the author’s dry and cuttingly acerbic wit is the icing on a masterful cake. In that sense, it is an easy and enjoyable read, even as it describes how the law is applied and operates in our daily lives.
The implications of the book, on the other hand, are significantly less comfortable to digest. Alongside a better understanding of a broad overview of legal topics, ranging from legal aid to our human rights and employment and personal injury law, comes a feeling of increasing alarm when we start to actually see the huge divide between what the media tells us about the law and what goes on in reality.
Most unsettlingly, when “hysterical headlines” from cases—including those of Shamima Begum, Alfie Evans and Charlie Gard, and the Brexit Miller case—are put in conjunction with the political stage, it becomes overwhelmingly clear exactly how this media spin has duped us into supporting calculated assaults to our basic legal rights, with the deleterious consequence that we are entitled to significantly less protection from the law than in the not-too-distant past. In light of this disheartening state of affairs, the Secret Barrister offers this suggestion:
‘The remedy lies in public legal education. Our rights can only be removed, and false narratives pumped throughout our culture, as long as we lack the tools to identify what is happening.’
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is a spectacular account of our justice system that will entertain and educate in equal measure. I will leave you with the following wonderful quote, which summarises (perhaps better than I ever could) the core belief behind Leducate’s mission.
“Reimagining legal education as a priority subject, as central to preparing a child for life as language and mathematics, is needed. Further, it should not be taught solely in silos. Law, justice and rights should be as infused throughout the curriculum as they are everyday life; from primary school through to secondary and beyond.”
Written by Nicoleen Wong