Speak softly and carry a big stick

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Author(s)
Buckley, Ralf
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2000
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Show full item recordAbstract
“Smart Regulation” is the latest offering in the Oxford series on Socio-Legal Studies, intended to “advance understanding of the social reality of law and legal processes”. It takes its place beside previous volumes such as “Sexually Transmitted Debt” - certainly a more eye-catching title than, say, mortgages and divorce law.
Written by Neil Gunningham, Peter Grabowsky and (in part) Darren Sinclair it is a dense tome, difficult to distil to a simple essence. It has nearly 500 pages of small print, each with voluminous footnotes in really tiny print. In fact p. 318 has only 2 lines of text and 50 lines of footnotes. It’s ...
View more >“Smart Regulation” is the latest offering in the Oxford series on Socio-Legal Studies, intended to “advance understanding of the social reality of law and legal processes”. It takes its place beside previous volumes such as “Sexually Transmitted Debt” - certainly a more eye-catching title than, say, mortgages and divorce law. Written by Neil Gunningham, Peter Grabowsky and (in part) Darren Sinclair it is a dense tome, difficult to distil to a simple essence. It has nearly 500 pages of small print, each with voluminous footnotes in really tiny print. In fact p. 318 has only 2 lines of text and 50 lines of footnotes. It’s very well produced. I found only one typo: in a reference to the Bhopal disaster, “union carbide” is printed in lower case (p. 140). And I found only one loose end: “Golden Carrots and Green Lights” are referred to on p. 47 and again on p. 418, but nowhere are they defined or described. It’s a solid and factual presentation, which needs care and concentration to digest, but ultimately the take-home message is clear: speak softly and carry a big stick.
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View more >“Smart Regulation” is the latest offering in the Oxford series on Socio-Legal Studies, intended to “advance understanding of the social reality of law and legal processes”. It takes its place beside previous volumes such as “Sexually Transmitted Debt” - certainly a more eye-catching title than, say, mortgages and divorce law. Written by Neil Gunningham, Peter Grabowsky and (in part) Darren Sinclair it is a dense tome, difficult to distil to a simple essence. It has nearly 500 pages of small print, each with voluminous footnotes in really tiny print. In fact p. 318 has only 2 lines of text and 50 lines of footnotes. It’s very well produced. I found only one typo: in a reference to the Bhopal disaster, “union carbide” is printed in lower case (p. 140). And I found only one loose end: “Golden Carrots and Green Lights” are referred to on p. 47 and again on p. 418, but nowhere are they defined or described. It’s a solid and factual presentation, which needs care and concentration to digest, but ultimately the take-home message is clear: speak softly and carry a big stick.
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Journal Title
Environmenal Planning Law Journal
Volume
17 (4)
Publisher URI
Copyright Statement
© 2000 Thomson Legal & Regulatory Limited. This is the author-manuscript version of this paper. Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher. Please refer to the journal's website for access to the definitive, published version.
Subject
History and Archaeology