You can find ‘What Does Law Mean, Mumu?' in the Legal & General Bookshop at the Four Courts or on legalbooks.ie. Available as a paperback and kindle from Amazon and as an Audiobook on Audible.
“ In a matter of hours, the of Learners were considering subjects such as the difference between criminal and civil justice – the presumption of innocence, the question of evidence – police officers being “citizens in uniform” - the principle of policing by consent of the people.”
“The Learners find out a little about the differences between the adversarial system, in common law jurisdictions, and the civil law jurisdictions. They hear that the common law is an adversarial system - meaning that disputants need to ‘do down’ the opposition in order for their side of the argument to prevail. The Learners hear about Alternative Dispute Resolution processes (ADRs) – such as mediation and consider how these can lead to consensus-building and minimise the damage of disputes between people and conflicts among peoples.”
“The Learners also consider the rights that we take for granted. One such case is known as the “Snail in the Ginger Beer”. The Learners discover how the resolve of one lady, who was horrified to find a dead snail in her ginger beer, in Scotland many years ago, gave rise to what we now take for granted as consumer protection.”
“Discussing young people and the Law and the value of programmes which are described as diversionary and restorative justice programmes, the Learners consider some processes that may assist in keeping young people out of the courts and out of prison.”
“The Learners consider the need for some common understanding of what a fair deal is and how the Courts, over time, have looked for what could be described as “the reasonable view”. They also find it amusing to see how the “The Man on the Clapham Omnibus” gave rise to the convenient notion of there being a typical ‘citizen in the street’ to provide some measure of what the average person would consider fair and reasonable.”
“The band of Learners also discuss the threat of bullying at so many levels. They consider the protections that are there and also talk a bit about the role of social media and how that can exercise influence over us - and has been known to facilitate forms of ‘online bullying’ that we would never have imagined possible.”