Justice, Legality and the Rule of Law Lessons from the Pitcairn Prosecutions

Author: Dawn Oliver
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199568666
Published In: September 2009
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

Out of stock

Description
Contents
Author
Reviews

Details

Introduces the ethical, political, and legal issues raised by the Pitcairn case to a general audience
Provides a valuable test case for a range of questions in legal and moral philosophy, such as the nature of law and cultural relativism
Draws on material and approaches from a range of academic disciplines, including law, anthropology, sociology, and history
A British colony of fifty souls in the Pacific Ocean, Pitcairn Island was settled by the Bounty mutineers and nineteen Polynesians in 1790. In 2004 six Pitcairn men were convicted of numerous offences against girls and young women, committed over a thirty year period, in what appears to have been a culture of sexual abuse on the island.

This case has raised many questions: what right did the British government have to initiate these prosecutions? Was it fair to prosecute the defendants, given that no laws had been published on the island? Indeed, what, if any, law was there on this island? This collection of essays explores the many important issues raised by the case and by the situation of a small, isolated community of this kind.

It starts by looking at the background to the prosecutions, considering the dilemma that faced the British government when the abuse was uncovered, and discussing the ways in which the judges dealt with the case, as well as exploring the history of the settlement and how colonial law affects it.

This background paves the way for an exploration of the philosophical, jurisprudential, and ethical issues raised by the prosecutions: was it legitimate for the UK to intervene, given the absence of any common community between the UK and the island? Was the positivist 'law on paper' approach adopted by the British government and the courts appropriate, especially given the lack of promulgation of the laws under which the men were prosecuted? Would alternative responses such as payment of compensation to the female victims and provision of community support have been preferable? And should universal human rights claims justify the prosecutions, overriding any allegations of cultural relativism on the part of the UK?

Readership: Academic lawyers, government and colonial lawyers, civil servants, anthropologists, sociologists, journalists and anyone with a special interest in Pitcairn Island and its history, legal theorists, and constitutional theorists.

Lord Hope of Craighead PC, FRSE: Foreword

1: Dawn Oliver: Problems on Pitcairn

2: Dawn Oliver: The Pitcairn Prosecutions, Paper Legal Systems, and the Rule of Law

3: Andrew Lewis: Pitcairn's Tortured Past: A Legal History

4: Gordon Woodman: Pitcairn Island Law: A Peculiar Case of the Diffusion of the Common Law

5: Brian Simpson and Dino Kritsiotis: The Pitcairn Prosecutions: An Assessment of Their Historical Context by Reference to the Provisions of Public International Law

6: Colm O'Cinneide: 'A Million Mutinies Now': Why Claims of Cultural Uniqueness Cannot be Used to Justify Violations of Basic Human Rights

7: George Letsas: Rights and Duties on Pitcairn Island

8: Stephen Guest: Legality, Reciprocity, and the Criminal Law on Pitcairn

Annex: Report of Steven Raymond Christian v. The Queen (Privy Council Report)

Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern, FBA: Afterword;

Edited by Dawn Oliver, Emeritus Professor of Constitutional Law, University College London

Dawn Oliver, FBA, is Emeritus Professor of Constitutional Law at University College London. Her research interests are in constitutional reform in the United Kingdom and in comparative constitutional law. Her publications include Common Values and the Public-Private Divide (1999); Constitutional Reform in the UK (2003); The Changing Constitution (6th edition, 2007, with co-editor Jeffrey Jowell), Human Rights and the Private Sphere: A Comparative Study (with co-editor Joerg Fedtke, 2007). She was a member of the Royal Commission on House of Lords Reform, 1999-2000 and of the Fabian Society Commission on the Future of the Monarchy, 2003.

Contributors:

The Rt Hon the Lord Hope of Craighead
Stephen Guest, University College London
Dino Kritsiotis, University of Nottingham
George Letsas, University College London
Andrew Lewis, University College London
Colm O'Cinneide, University College London
Dawn Oliver, University College London
Brian Simpson , University of Michigan
Marilyn Strathern, Girton College, Cambridge
Gordon Woodman, University of Birmingham

"The book is recommended New Year reading for all those who are curious about the Pitcairn trials and their ramifications and who are interested to read about the social, historical and jurisprudential issues which arose, or could have arisen, in the trials." - Professor Tony Angelo, New Zealand Law Journal, February 2010

"...a surpassingly thoughtful collection of essays on the constitutional, jurisprudential, and jurisdictional issues arising out of the Pitcairn trial and appeals" - Bill Hodge, Associate Professor, University of Auckland, N2 Lawyer Review

"The interest and reflection evident in these essays demonstrate a spirit of enquiry that should reach to all corners of the world, however small, however distant: what happens on islands can be central to mainstream concerns and relevant to all of us" - Sue Farran, Book Reviews

"Anyone interested in the concept of the state, and in the meaning of law and of the rule of law, will find much food for thought." - Ross Gilbert Anderson, The Edinburgh Law Review