Justice on Trial by Chris Daw KC

 Justice on Trial by Chris Daw KC is an incredible book by one of the top defence barristers that provides a number of solutions for a criminal justice system that is at breaking point. This book covers a range of topics, including why prisons do not work and why we should close them all down, why we should legalise drugs, how we should help child offenders and the idea that people are neither good nor evil. This book looks at a variety of themes regarding what we are doing wrong in our Criminal Justice System with continuous crime and ever-increasing recidivism levels.

I liked this book because whereas The Secret Barrister often focussed on the problems of our criminal justice system, this book both acknowledges the problems of our criminal justice system and looks at ways of fixing it through Daw's own experiences as well as those from professionals from around the world. The use of case examples which Daw has worked on during his career, further adds value to the book, making it a less academic read and more suitable for everyone and anyone. Saying that this would be a particularly good book for anyone in law or politics, including students in these subjects. This could also be seen as somewhat of a comparison book that looks at and compares the criminal justice systems from around the world with those of England and Wales.

Having said that, this book could have been made even better if there were more case examples throughout. In the book, there is a main case that introduces the chapter and also closes the chapter with the outcome. But as well as this, it would have been nice to see many more cases discussed more briefly throughout the book. Some of the chapters could also be said to be quite long, but they were nevertheless very interesting.

Altogether, I rate this book 3 stars as it is a good, interesting and thought-provoking book challenging the English population's thoughts about our criminal justice system and the ways of tackling crime. It provides a number of suggestions of how we can improve our criminal justice system, crime and punishment from someone who clearly has much experience in the relevant area. I would therefore recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the way our system works, as well as those in the legal industry and studying law or criminological subjects.