Book review - Criminal Justice in a New Society Essays in Honour of Solly Leeman 2003

• Published date: 24 May 2019
• Date: 24 May 2019

BOOK REVIEW

Criminal Justice in a New Society

Essays in Honour of Solly Leeman

2003 Acta Juridica

Edited by Jonathan Burchell & Adele Erasmus

Juta & Co Ltd, v-xxii & pp

359

Price: 395,00

ANGELO PANTAZIS

Professor of Law, University of the Witwatersrand,

Johannesburg

This book of essays on criminal justice in South Africa was first published,

identically, as the volume of the journal

Acta Juridica

in 2003. The dedication

of each year's volume to a different area of the law and the general

excellence of the editors has made the series one of the weightiest law

journals in South Africa. The volumes of the

Acta Juridica

are worthy enough

to be re-published as books, as they are. I would question, though, their

identical

publication as books. In a journal, it is permissible for the articles to

be rag-bag. But a

book

of essays should be linked by more than a broad

subject of the law. The subject should be narrower or the essays should be

clustered around issues or ideas or the unity of the book should have a

strategic purpose. In his preface the only links that Jonathan Burchell makes

is that the essays concern criminal justice in a new society (at xi). The rest of

the preface consists of (very helpful) summaries of each piece. I would have

liked to have seen more editorial shaping of the book, both in the selection

of pieces (the authors were, after all, specially invited to contribute) and in

the drawing of conclusions in the preface. The book under review is a hybrid

of journal and book.

My concern with genre aside, each essay is a solid piece of work in its area.

They are classified under five headings: The first section on the General

Principles of Criminal Liability and Specific Offences has chapters on recent

240

(2004) 17 SACJ 240

© Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd