Book Reviews : Courts and the Political Process in England. By FRED L. MORRISON. (Beverly Hills: SAGE Publications, 1974. Pp. 224. $10.00.)

• Published date: 01 December 1974
• DOI: 10.1177/106591297402700436
• Author: William C. Louthan
• Date: 01 December 1974
• Subject Matter: Articles

770

One

of

his

arguments

is

that

the

mix

of

incentive

types

in

the

National

Assembly

has

not

changed

significantly

since

1946.

Changes

which

have

occurred

in

the

Assembly

have

resulted

from

political

and

institutional

developments,

not

from

shifts

in

the

motivations

of

those

who

ran

for

office

and

were

elected.

This

specu-

lation

is

an

excellent

starting

point

for

greater

research

on

the

relationship

between

broadly

based

social,

economic

and

cultural

changes

in

France

and

the

personalities

of

those

who

ultimately

come

to

reflect

those

changes

in

the

National

Assembly.

The

greatest

value

ultimately

of

this

study

is

that

it

warns

us

against

hasty

judg-

ments

about

the

homogeneity

of

French

legislators

and

about

the

lasting

influence

of

major

political

events

(such

as

the

1968

upheavals

or

the

1973

and

1974

elec-

tions)

on

the

fundamental

motivations

which

propel

individuals

into

French

politics.

Colorado

State

University

SUE

ELLEN

M.

CHARLTON

Courts

and

the

Political

Process

in

England.

By

FRED

L.

MORRISON.

(Beverly

Hills:

SAGE

Publications,

1974.

Pp.

224.

$10.00.)

The

American

political

scientist

who

would

like

to

have

on

his

bookshelf

an

excellent

description

of

the

contemporary

English

legal

system,

complete

with

organization

charts,

painstaking

analysis

of

the

tasks

performed

by

nearly

every

participant

in

the

system,

and

a

synopsis

of

recent

legislation

affecting

the

political

role

of

the

English

courts,

could

do

well

to

purchase

this

third

volume

in

the

SAGE

Series

on

&dquo;Politics

and

the

Legal

Order.&dquo;

Fred

L.

Morrison

is

well

qualified

to

write

this

book

having

not

only

a

Princeton

Ph.D.

in

political

science

but

also

holding

both

an

English

and

an

American

law

degree.

His

conclusions

differ

sharply

from

most

previously

published

materials

on

English

courts

(notably

Abel-

Smith

and

Steven’s

Lawyers

and

the

Courts

[London:

Heineman,

1967])

and

he

does

his

best

to

discuss

recent

developments

of

particular

significance

such

as

the

Industrial

Relations

Act

of

1971

which,

for

the

first

time

in

this

century,

places

many

labor

disputes,

one

of

the

most

controversial

areas

of

public

policy,

clearly

before

the

courts.

However,

if

this

book

were

to

be

judged

by

how

well

it

achieves

its

stated

objec-

tive,

&dquo;to

apply

to

English

data

the

perspectives

and

research

technology

of

Ameri-

can

judicial

scholars,&dquo;

it

would

have

to

be

considered

a

near

failure.

The

author

assumes

that

good

description

is

synonymous

with

explanation,

attempts

to

pass

off

prescriptions

as

&dquo;hypotheses,&dquo;

and,

generally,

pays

only

a

superficially

semantic

deference

to

social

science

inquiry.

Specifically,

the

book

contains the

now

com-

monplace

attempt

to

put

the

analysis

in

a

systems

framework,

but

the

outline

is

at

best

skeletal

and

subsequent

treatment

diverges

even

from

it.

Next,

a

sound

argu-

ment

is

made

concerning

the

need

for

comparative

judicial

research

but

no

subse-

quent

reference

is

made

to

existing

cross-national

judicial

paradigms.

When

we

get

down

to

the

substance

we

note

that

in

the

chapter

on

political

inputs

into

the

judicial

system,&dquo;

judicial

selection

is

the

only

&dquo;input&dquo;

identified,

and

although

the

importance

of

&dquo;socialization&dquo;

is

emphasized,

the

socialization

process

is

only

super-