In this spirit, a special relationship based on a shared cultural heritage continues between the Americans and the British. This book brings together a dozen essays written for faculty seminars at Queen Mary and Westfield College. The British legal academics who submitted essays on their areas of expertise demonstrate a sophisticated technical understanding of the American legal system. Some write with hints of admiration, although one also gleans an occasional trace of ethnocentric condescension in a critique of what their former colonists are up to now. The text covers a broad range of topics.
Some pieces are wholly theoretical, while others explore more practical applications of the law.
Several writers trace the historical influences of American legal culture and public law on British legal ideals. Other essays explore a shared vision of democratic legal theory. For example, one author explores the larger ideals of equality and moral independence that underpin the rule of law by discussing John Stuart Mill's principle of limited government as it relates it to US Supreme Court decisions on contraception and abortion. One sees evidence of a suggestion by the British judiciary that it is prepared to accord persuasive authority to the constitutional values of other democratic nations when deciding upon ambiguous common law or statutory law that impacts civil liberties. Hopefully, the US Supreme Court will expand America's legal horizons in this same enlightened direction.