New series on leading works in Law launched

The first book in a new collection, Leading Works in Law has been published and includes chapters by School of Law and Politics staff.

The book, Leading Works in Law and Religion, features chapters by Professor Russell Sandberg, Dr Sharon Thompson and members of the School’s Centre for Law and Religion, Frank Cranmer, David Pocklington and Ed Morgan.

The Leading Works book series is published by Routledge and is designed to explore the development of law and legal sub-disciplines by firing critical light at the way in which they understand themselves and perpetuate their identity. Created and edited by Professor Sandberg, each book focuses on a different legal sub-discipline and asks leading and emerging scholars in the field to select and analyse a ‘leading work’ and how it has or should have impacted upon the development of the sub-discipline.

Professor Sandberg commented, “Law schools are currently undergoing considerable change and facing a number of challenges. It has therefore never been so important to take a step back and to analyse how areas of law have developed, what they have included and excluded and how they can develop in the future. The Leading Works series provides an innovative way of doing just that. It is the academic equivalent of Desert Island Discs!”

Leading Works in Law and Religion, explores the emerging field of Law and Religion series with Professor Sandberg contending that the rise of specialist journals and conferences may have led to the ‘ghettoisation’ of the field with experts on Law and Religion not interacting with wider developments within Law and other cognate disciplines. Chapters in the collection highlight the value of international, historical and feminist approaches that have the potential of overcoming this.

Professor Sandberg commented, “Cardiff University has been at the forefront of the development of Law and Religion as a field of study in the UK. It is fitting therefore that the first book in the series revisits this and explores how Law and Religion can develop from here.  The book contains passionate and often provocative chapters from some of the finest minds in the field. I am especially grateful to Professor John Witte from Emory University and a good friend of Cardiff’s for providing an afterword to the volume”.

It is hoped that the Leading Works collection will, in time include a book on all legal sub-disciplines. Several further volumes in the series are currently under contract or review but should you be interested in editing a book in the series in future please contact Professor Sandberg