A Review of the Book:‎ Sitting in Judgment: The Working Lives of Judges Authored by Penny Darbyshire

Abstract

Published in the UK and North America by Hart Publishing in 2011 is seven years ‎researching of Penny Darbyshire describing the performance conditions under which ‎judges work, the pressure to which they are subject and the process of decision ‎making. The book is the first milestone in the history of knowing what, why, when, ‎where and how of judges both to tell the whole truth not to undermine the dignity or ‎by pass decorum but to point out where lies the difficulty and how to solve it as a ‎responsible people. Ours is the era of reforming in all pursuits of life. Legal and ‎judicial education which is result oriented will only bring and sustain public ‎confidence especially in England and Wales and generally throughout the globe. ‎

The above survey of the book shows that the author has deeply peeped into the ‎problem and successfully seen the real causes of its arising. Our author is not an ‎outsider. She has a first degree in law, a master's degree in criminology and a PhD in ‎socio-legal studies. She has been a lecturer and reader at Kingston University since ‎‎1978. She is also an adjunct associate professor, University of Notre Dame, London ‎Law Centre, and was a visiting lecturer at the University of California and Berkeley, ‎from 1992 until 1993. She was a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge in ‎‎2005. This book will go a long way to guide legal and judicial education anywhere in ‎the world. The world has become a global village and there is two way traffic of ideas ‎and experience in almost all disciplines of knowledge. Human is human every where ‎and the core problems being the same, the book is a diagnosis of the problems ‎common to all. Once the problem is diagnosed, prescription of recipe is well focused. ‎Solution becomes easy and quick subject to coordination and cooperation of all ‎concerned. Apprehension of reoccurrence of the problem remains but remote. The ‎book also indicates that teachers remain at the top due to their sincerity towards the ‎knowledge they impart and the people they educate and train. Legal and Judicial ‎education is no exception to it. I must congratulate to the author and the publisher.‎

Keywords: judges, judicial education, legal education, life of judges, role of teacher, courts, training, problems

JEL Classification: K40