Speak softly and carry a big stick

Abstract

“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.