There is a scene in the film of The Da Vinci Code where Tom Hanks’ character is being chased through London, and realises: ‘I’ve got to get to a library… fast!’ In common with many films and TV dramas, there is plenty of action around the well-preserved heart of ‘legal London’. This small area of London boasts world-class libraries housing unique and valuable authorities. If you need the State Papers for 1812, they are here in the Law Society Library. The King’s law library is magnificent, as are the collections of the four Inns. 

Eduardo Reyes coutout

Eduardo Reyes

All these have gaps which should be filled. Most decent law libraries, like the Society’s own, have a few shelves that are a random collection of books. On Chancery Lane, EBV Christian’s A Short History of Solicitors (1896) is a couple of shelves below Michael Zander’s Legal Services For The Community (1978). Cricketers And The Law sits close to Rackley and Auchmuty’s Women’s Legal Landmarks (2018). Lord Denning’s life is well represented.

These library sections should be more complete. That is because the profession, businesses and policymakers are engaged in projects that challenge or change what it is to be a lawyer, or to work in law.

Qualification has changed. Law firms are experimenting with artificial intelligence within the delivery of advice and services. Some are turning to the concepts of ‘legal engineering’. Policymakers and their enforcement authorities are extending lawyers’ professional responsibilities to include a policing element. Unrepresented parties throw up ethical dilemmas for lawyers opposite.

In this context, what books would help answer questions like, ‘What are we and what have we been?’ I would include some already there (Women’s Legal Landmarks). Zander’s tome should lean on a line of Richard Susskind’s End Of/Future Of books.

Academic and former MP David Howarth’s Law As Engineering (2013) is an urgent addition, to be put near HLA Hart’s The Concept Of Law (1961). Lord Bingham’s The Rule Of Law (2010) is a must, as is Catharine MacKinnon’s Butterfly Politics (2017). The biography section should be big. Lord Denning needs company, so let’s have Lady Hale’s 2021 autobiography Spider Woman. I’d argue for solicitor Edward Bell’s 1939 memoir These Meddlesome Attorneys.

The profession is pursued by change. In deciding how to respond, finding a law library should help. Which books would you stock?

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