The Ministry of Justice’s consultation on court closures – sorry, modernising and improving the courts – closed in September, but Obiter nonetheless hopes that his honour Anthony Bradbury’s book, Early London County Courts, is on the justice ministers’ Christmas reading lists. The ministers, Obiter knows, like to think outside the box – and what could be further from said box than a few solutions filched from the mid-19th century? The idea of putting courts in shopping centres, as has recently been mooted, seems a tad pedestrian compared to what occurred in the old days, when, for example, pubs doubled up as courts, as this picture of Wandsworth County Court (also the Ram Inn) illustrates. Obiter reckons it could be time to resurrect that particular idea. Just think of the benefits. For magistrates’ courts, you could go from pavement fracas to a community sentence in minutes; and in a county court pub, your mate wouldn’t owe you that tenner for long – the district judge in the saloon bar could find in your favour in time for the next round. See our reviews page for a review of Bradbury’s book.