BOOK OF THE DAY: The Memoirs of a Radical LawyerBy Michael Mansfield,Bloomsbury, 496pp, £20
MICHAEL MANSFIELD says the book is “a collage of recollections and reminiscences, which are gathered together around issues that I feel are important, and which arise from some of the cases I have undertaken . . . my aim has been to keep an eye on the main point: justice being done, and being seen to be done”.
He describes his conventional upbringing in Whetstone in north London which included helping his mother deliver election material on behalf of Conservative candidate Margaret Thatcher.
Mansfield had the benefit of having some fortuitous mentors in his education, including the fine Welsh landscape painter Kyffin Williams, who was art master at Highgate. He encouraged his pupils to look at things beneath their feet and then to things above their heads on their way to school so as to discover “what needed to be ‘looked for’ and then questioned”.
This “inquisitive observation” learnt from Kyffin Williams has remained part of his life. At Keele University, where he studied the philosophy of science and its methodology under Prof Anthony Flew, “all argument was subjected to intimate dissection, requiring precise and incisive formulations”. His formal education provided him with significant skills which were to be of great benefit to him in his chosen career as a barrister.
Twenty chapters deal with the important legal issues, but these are not dry expositions of various aspects of the law. They are an exploration of the administration of justice and its necessary legal principles and procedures and how they interweave with the life of the individual.
Underlying many of the problems is the disparity of strength between the individual and the forces of the state in all of its many guises.
He describes many of the cases with which he has been involved. The one of which he is proudest is his battle with the metropolitan police in his attempt to achieve justice for the parents of Stephen Lawrence. Lawrence was murdered in a racist attack in south London.
Their collaborative efforts resulted in what is known as the MacPherson report whose author, Sir William MacPherson, held that what had occurred during the course of the inquiry by the police was a case of “institutional racism”. This famous phrase will always be linked with the name of Stephen Lawrence.
A revealing chapter illustrates problems inherent with DNA evidence, which is used to establish whether someone was present at the scene of a crime. The transfer of DNA from one object to another may create problems, as it is possible that an innocent person’s DNA may unwittingly be present at the scene of a crime through such a transfer. If it does so appear, the innocent person can find him or herself in the firing line.
While embracing DNA as a remarkable discovery, Mansfield cautions that “we should all be vigilant about its limitations”.
He is not deterred that many of his clients start from a difficult legal position.
His method is to get stuck into the detail of the case. Moreover, armed with the inquisitive training learned from Williams and Flew, Mansfield is able to argue before a court the previously unnoticed detail in a cogent manner.
Apart from his many clients, in my opinion, society (a concept which his former MP and British prime minister Margaret Thatcher could not grasp) has also benefited greatly from his endeavours.
John McBratney is a barrister