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Dean of Law Faculty publishes new book

Students, lawyers and judges now have access to a text which seeks to apply legal philosophy to the perplexing issue of revolution in the Caribbean.

Kelsen in the Grenada court: Essays on Revolutionary Legality is the latest book to be published by Professor Simeon McIntosh, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the U.W.I Cave Hill Campus. It is a work on the application of the theory of revolutionary legality as articulated by Austrian-born legal philosopher, the late Professor Hans Kelsen to the trial that resulted from the 1983 coup in Grenada.

More specifically, the collection of essays examines the vexed issue of its own legality that faced the Grenada Court during the Maurice Bishop murder trial. According to the legal academic, the Court in response to a challenge of its validity and constitutionality raised by the litigants, Bernard Coard et al, declared itself to be unconstitutional; yet proceeded to convict the defendants and sentence them to hang.

In the volume, Professor McIntosh challenged the Court’s understanding of the issues in the case and attempted to show that on the proper application of Kelsen’s theory of revolutionary legality, the Court would have avoided the embarrassment of declaring itself unconstitutional.  He said the book demonstrates how major cases can be resolved by the application of legal philosophy. “This work establishes the central importance of jurisprudence or legal philosophy to a sound legal education.  It shows how, in certain cases, deep philosophical issues are engaged in the practice of adjudication”.

Professor McIntosh noted that while the book will be required reading for students in the Faulty of Law, it should also be useful to those in other disciplines as well as legal practitioners and judges. “It is also an academic work in political theory so students in political science and history who would be interested in revolution should find it valuable,” he said.

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