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Secrecy, Law and Society

Format: Hardback
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd, London, United Kingdom
Imprint: Routledge
Published: 2nd Jun 2015
Dimensions: w 156mm h 234mm d 17mm
Weight: 584g
ISBN-10: 1138826855
ISBN-13: 9781138826854
Barcode No: 9781138826854
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Synopsis
Commentators have shown how a 'culture of security' ushered in after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 has involved exceptional legal measures and increased recourse to secrecy on the basis of protecting public safety and safeguarding national security. In this context, scholars have largely been preoccupied with the ways that increased security impinges upon civil liberties. While secrecy is justified on public interest grounds, there remains a tension between the need for secrecy and calls for openness, transparency and disclosure. In law, secrecy has implications for the separation of powers, due process, and the rule of law, raising fundamental concerns about open justice, procedural fairness and human rights. Beyond the counterterrorism and legal context, scholarly interest in secrecy has been concerned with the credibility of public and private institutions, as well as the legacies of secrecy across a range of institutional and cultural settings. By exploring the intersections between secrecy, law and society, this volume is a timely and critical intervention in secrecy debates traversing various fields of legal and social inquiry. It will be a useful resource for academic researchers, university teachers and students, as well as law practitioners and policymakers interested in the legal and socio-legal dimensions of secrecy.

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What Reviewers Are Saying

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Aug 31st 2015, 21:54
Diversity of views
Awesome - 10 out of 10
SECRECY, FREE SPEECH AND THE LAW: A DIVERSITIY OF VIEWS

An appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers

I say! Who knew? This scholarly compilation of articles in the aptly titled ‘Secrecy, Law and Society’ contains a chapter by Professor Thomas Ellington of Wesleyan University, USA that offers an interesting comment by way of background information on secrecy law and its problems in the United States.

Although an open society, the United States, he says “has kept secrets since the Revolutionary War, which takes us back to 1776 or so. In that war, General Washington maintained a spy ring behind British lines and used ‘rudimentary cryptography and invisible ink.’” (So that’s how they won!)

Some 240 years later, we’ve moved forward to the era of WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden. Either or both will never cease to generate controversy, although most of us will admit that in difficult times, secrets can be vital and equally vital is the need to protect them.

Published by the Glasshouse Book imprint of Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, this book is further evidence of the increasing scholarly interest (as well as public interest) in the never-ending tension between the right to privacy and what is frequently referred to as the inalienable right to free speech.

A collection of fourteen treatises by as many learned contributors, the book is the result of a workshop held in February 2014 at the University of Sydney, Australia. Most of the contributors are established academics in law at Australian universities joined by colleagues from Britain and the United States. Individually and collectively, they present an interesting cross section of viewpoints on various instances and aspects of secrecy, not only in law, but in other areas of public and social life.

The book’s contents area grouped under four categories which consider respectively: secrecy and security; open justice and procedural fairness; the right to know (tough one that!) and secrecy and society.

Lawyers, scholars and most certainly journalists and feature writers doing research in any of these areas will find this book, with its extensive and meticulous footnoting, a treasure trove of references to follow up as interesting and authoritative avenues for further enquiry.

What is especially refreshing about the book is its plain-speaking and quite often hard-hitting approach to the various aspects of this topic about which the individual contributors have strong views. As a contribution to the ongoing debate on the often insoluble problems inherent in issues of secrecy, security, free speech and the law, this book with its diversity of opinion is first class.

The publication date is cited as at 2015.
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"Lawyers, scholars and most certainly journalists and feature writers doing research in any of these areas will find this book, with its extensive and meticulous footnoting, a treasure trove of references to follow up as interesting and authoritative avenues for further enquiry. What is especially refreshing about the book is its plain-speaking and quite often hard-hitting approach to the various aspects of this topic about which the individual contributors have strong views. As a contribution to the ongoing debate on the often insoluble problems inherent in issues of secrecy, security, free speech and the law, this book with its diversity of opinion is first class." - Phillip Taylor MBE, Richmond Green Chambers