Based on accessible information, it is the absolute truth that District Judge Ayers of Bedford County Court in Bedfordshire, England, could not spell the word, “emphasise” and/or did not know the meaning and correct grammatical employment of the words “emphasis” and “will.” A mistake is not impossible, but it should be less likely in a proof-read and approved judgment. A mistake should also be inversely proportional to rank and experience. “The report, by the OECD warns that the UK needs to take significant action to boost the basic skills of the nation’s young people. The 460-page study is based on the first-ever survey of the literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving at work skills of 16- to 65-year-olds in 24 countries, with almost 9,000 people taking part in England and Northern Ireland to make up the UK results. The findings showed that England and Northern Ireland have some of the highest proportions of adults scoring no higher than Level 1 in literacy and numeracy – the lowest level on the OECD’s scale. This suggests that their skills in the basics are no better than that of a 10-year-old.” A significant decline in educational standards is incompatible with the competent administration of the law. Competent administration of the law should be an inviolable natural right, otherwise you have The Law, Paralysed.

A fundamental critique of American law and legal thought, Against the Law consists of a series of essays written from three different perspectives that coalesce into a deep criticism of contemporary legal culture. Paul F. Campos, Pierre Schlag, and Steven D. Smith challenge the conventional representations of the legal system that are articulated and defended by American legal scholars. Unorthodox, irreverent, and provocative, Against the Law demonstrates that for many in the legal community, law has become a kind of substitute religion--an essentially idolatrous practice composed of systematic self-misrepresentation and self-deception. Linked by a persistent inquiry into the nature and identity of "the law," these essays are informed by the conviction that the conventional representations of law, both in law schools and the courts, cannot be taken at face value--that the law, as commonly conceived, makes no sense. The authors argue that the relentlessly normative prescriptions of American legal thinkers are frequently futile and, indeed, often pernicious. They also argue that the failure to recognize the role that authorship must play in the production of legal thought plagues both the teaching and the practice of American law. Ranging from the institutional to the psychological and metaphysical deficiencies of the American legal system, the depth of criticism offered by Against the Law is unprecedented. In a departure from the nearly universal legitimating and reformist tendencies of American legal thought, this book will be of interest not only to the legal academics under attack in the book, but also to sociologists, historians, and social theorists. More particularly, it will engage all the American lawyers who suspect that there is something very wrong with the nature and direction of their profession, law students who anticipate becoming part of that profession, and those readers concerned with the status of the American legal system.

Given the enormous struggles, efforts and money expended on the equalities enterprise, why has more progress not been made? And further, why have things actually become worse in some circumstances? It is argued this has occurred because:- The values of Equality have been bureaucratized, allowing the liberal principle of "live and let live" to be perverted and put in the service of fear and control.- The Diversity discourse has been hijacked by the libertarians and put in the service of increasing profit, under the guise of liberty and inclusivity.- The equality movements have become apolitical, sidetracked into the project of the indiscriminate celebration and preservation of cultures, in lieu of challenging the status quo within cultures as much as between them.- The versions of psychology and sociology that the equality movements have drawn on are over simple

This volume presents seminal monographs that continue to shape the contemporary discipline of law and society. Long before the turn toward cultural analysis of social institutions, socio-legal scholars demonstrated the ways in which law and its activities is contingent on the context of time, place, and hierarchy. The works selected for this volume demonstrate this foundational principle of the discipline of law and society.