Bringing Down Goliath: How Good Law Can Topple the Powerful

Product Information

This is how Jolyon Maugham KC describes it in his new book Bringing Down Goliath, which charts the origins and ongoing battles of the Good Law Project (GLP). Pretty well all of them have championed worthwhile causes unrelated to the EU membership issue that I have mentally bookmarked and thought I should find out more about.

Maugham’s reference to Goliath is an indirect reference to the people in power that haven’t been held to account, which is the driving force that led him to creating the Good Law Project in 2017. In particular, the chapter on the PPE procurement scandal is breathtaking, even for those of us who thought we knew the facts. Though the ‘rights for nature’ movement is relatively new in the UK, Maugham points to the idea of companies as legal persons. Though some of his positions arguably conflict with liberalism – on social media, he indulges identity politics and supports gender self-identification – the book features fewer of these tensions. Maugham is not against wide judicial power — he wants judges to use a political end goal as justification to unilaterally abrogate Parliamentary sovereignty, yet he also thinks that judges put right-wing political ends ahead of following the law.

Viewed with an open mind, this book is not political but does cover politics and holds it to account using the rule of law. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. Jolyon Maugham KC founded Good Law Project in 2017 with the belief that the law can also put power in the hands of ordinary people.

Her remarks triggered a row as Maugham first suggested Rowling should read his book before turning his sights on her gender-critical views. They are still fundamentally non-politicians who probably feel much more comfortable interacting with their friends and peers.For that reason, this book deserves to be taken seriously, because the ideology underlying it is disturbing and dangerous. In Bringing Down Goliath, Jolyon Maugham reveals how these cases unfolded, and exposes the failings of our judiciary system.