Law’s Strangest Cases: Extraordinary but true tales from over five centuries of legal history
£0.40
A quirky collection of true stories from the stranger side of the legal system, including a dead parrot in a courtroom, a mummified murder victim and a strange case of cannibalism.
A rollicking collection of barely believable stories from five centuries of legal history – you’ll be gripped by these tales of murder, intrigue, crime, punishment and the pursuit of justice. Meet the only dead parrot ever to give evidence in a court of law, the doctor with the worst bedside manner of all time, the murderess who collected money from her mummified victim for 21 years, and explore one of the most indigestible dilemmas – if you’d been shipwrecked 2,000 miles from home, would you have eaten Parker the cabin boy? The tales within these pages are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious and, most importantly, true.
Revised, redesigned and updated for a new generation of legal eagles, this book is the perfect gift for lawyers, armchair detectives and true crime afficionados everywhere.
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by para3drop
A witty resume of over eighty court cases varying from brutal murder to trivial crimes which have tested the judgement of the country’s best law practitioners. The author adopts a lighthearted approach, using frivolous language and double entendres to highlight the vagueness which can appear in the application of the law and shows how the personalities of those involved can add to the confusion.
The brutality of many of the crimes referred to in this book is clear, but Peter Seddon is not writing about this aspect of court work.
by VO2 Max.
A very amusing and readable book.
The cases described cover a broad Historical period.
Even if you are not particularly interested in Law of itself ,you will find the cases surprising and enlivened by the authors
humourous comments.
An enjoyable easy read,which is that bit different.
by John Gallienne
This paperback book was slightly damaged during transportation in the top corner of the spine as a result of being packaged along with a very heavy mythology encyclopedia. There was a tiny hole in the packaging where the damage occurred. Not enough to merit sending back, but surely paperbacks should not be packed with heavy hard covers. Too much risk of damage especially as the packaging is very light & basic
by Leanne
I bought this out of interest, I’m studying law and wanted something law related but a bit light hearted. There are some very funny stories in there.
by Preeti
I chose four stars because it was great and weird and wonderful but it was only up to date on when the book was published and not so easy to understand. But it provided wonderful reference points which I can use and is practically what the title says, provides you with law’s strangest cases! Would recommend it.
by Poppy
I loved the way his book was laid out beginning to look at the strange cases put before the courts of the world and going forward into the 21st century.. Of course some I had heard of like the Shipman case. Many seemed almost ridiculous to contemplate as being real and taking up precious court time. But many show how people can “get away with murder”..
Although we as the public may think all cases put before the courts are of a serious bent and tax payers money has been and is being used wisely many are simply a waste of time and money.
This book highlights some of them.. A great read…
by Avid reader
Each case is only 2 or 3 pages, so an easy book to pick up or put down. But I didn’t particularly find the cases to be strange. I was expecting the cases to be more interesting or relate to odd and strange English law. The author’s attempts at humour failed on most occasions.
by T. K. Elliott
There were quite a few cases listed in this book – but the disadvantage of there being so many is that each case is given very little page time. Just enough for a basic rundown of the facts and a couple of comments from the author.
The author is not a lawyer – and he says as much in the foreword. However, I think the book loses something for this, as it’s obvious that the author doesn’t know much about the actual law. The cases chosen mostly seem to have been picked because of the sensational circumstances, not because they illustrate any particularly interesting (or strange!) point of law.
So, all in all, a reasonably entertaining read – but it’s mind candy rather than anything with more substance to it.