By Lawrence E. Diver

Laurence Diver combines insight from legal theory, philosophy of technology, and programming practice to develop a new theoretical and practical approach to the design of legitimate software. The book critically engages with the rule(s) of code, arguing that, like laws, these should exhibit certain formal characteristics if they are to be acceptable in a democracy. The resulting jurisprudential affordances translate ideas of legitimacy from legal philosophy into the world of code design, to be realized through the ‘constitutional’ role played by programming languages, integrated development environments (IDEs), and agile development practice. The text interweaves theory and practice throughout, including many insights into real-world technologies, as well as case studies on blockchain applications and the Internet of Things (IoT). Whenever you use a smartphone, website, or IoT device, your behavior is determined to a great extent by a designer. Their software code defines from the outset what is possible, with very little scope to interpret the meaning of those ‘rules’ or to contest them. How can this kind of control be acceptable in a democracy? If we expect legislators to respect values of legitimacy when they create the legal rules that govern our lives, shouldn’t we expect the same from the designers whose code has a much more direct rule over us?

Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021. 

Edited by Antony Duff

Five preeminent legal theorists tackle a range of fundamental questions on the nature of the philosophy of criminal law. Their essays explore the extent to which and the ways in which our systems of criminal law can be seen as rational and principled. The essays discuss some of the principles by which, it is often thought, a system of law should be structured, and they ask whether our own systems are genuinely principled or riven by basic contradictions, reflecting deeper political and social conflicts

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 272p.

By Ernest Bryant Hoag and Edward Huntington Williams

. “In presenting this book to the public the authors have in mind the need for brief but accurate account of the common mental defects and sociological factors encountered in study of adult criminals, and of delinquent children. From an extensive experience in criminological work, including the psychopathic laboratory and much expert testimony in court, they are convinced that many judges, lawyers, police officials and doctors will welcome the sort of information which is here given. They also have in mind the needs of social service workers, teachers, and students of sociology, and last, but not least, certain part of the general public, which is asking almost in vain for the explanation of the criminal and delinquent behavior which today, more than ever before, presents itself in every large community. The authors have not pretended to offer anything new to experts in the study of abnormal behavior, yet they hope that even some of these will find the case-histories, at least, interesting and perhaps valuable.”

Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1923. 405p.

By M. Ralph Brown.

Psychology Apoplied to the Trial of Cases, to Crime and Its Treatment, and To Mental States and Processes, Indianapolis: “The aim of the author has been to collect and to explain within the covers of this small volume those principles of applied psychology which are of distinct benefit to the legal profession. Usefulness to the practicing lawyer has been the criterion upon which the inclusion or exclusion of material has been based. The field of applied legal psychology is at the present time almost an uncharted one. It is true that there are some few books, and a number of articles or chapters of books, upon this subject, yet on the whole they are so general in treatment, so difficult to obtain, or developed from some other angle than that of serving the lawyer in his work, that it was felt that a volume which would avoid these defects, and which would bring the subject down to date, would not be simply another volume on an old subject, but would be a really creative achievement.”

Bobbs-Merrill, 1926. 346p.

By George Frederick Arnold.

2d ed., Rev. “This work does not claim to be an original treatise on either Psychology or Law.”

Calcutta: Thacker, Spink, & Co., 1913. 607p.

Edited by Paul J. du Plessis.

This volume brings together an international team of scholars to debate Cicero's role in the narrative of Roman law in the late Republic – a role that has been minimised or overlooked in previous scholarship. This reflects current research that opens a larger and more complex debate about the nature of law and of the legal profession in the last century of the Roman Republic.

University of Edinburgh Press (2018) 253 pages.