To lawyers, injustice is the unfair conduct of a trial. The consequence of this is that a trial can be considered "fair" even though an innocent man has been convicted, and vice versa. The man in the street knows better; for him a fair trial is one that results in the guilty being convicted and the innocent acquitted. In this fascinating and ground-breaking book Brian Harris QC investigates famous trials throughout history, asking not just "was the trial fair?" but "was the accused guilty or nnocent?" The results are sometimes surprising.

Looking at the trials of, among others, Joan of Arc, Galileo, Sir Thomas More, the Rosenbergs, and Sacco and Vanzetti, Brian Harris considers whether Admiral Byng was condemned because of an misunderstanding of the Articles of War; whether the Tolpuddle Martyrs were convicted under an Act of Parliament passed fr an entirely different purpose; and whether Nazi leaders should have been convicted of crimes that did not exist at the time they were committed?

Yet, intriguing though these questions are, they are dwarfted by the compelling human stories, many of which raise issues that still resonate today. How far should society go in tolerating dissent? Can a burning belief in social justice ever justify a campaign of terrorism? Is a charge of treason a proper response to someone who takes up arms to defend his country? And, perhaps most topical of all, are we in the free world justified in attacking a tyrant who is not directly threatening us?

Drawing on a wealth of courtroom documentation, Injustice is a controversial and readable re-examination of some of the most notorious trials in history.

Brian Harris OBE, QC is a lawyer with great experience of the criminal courts. He has written a number of books on legal subjects, including The Literature of the Law, and anthology of the most important and interesting legal pronouncements of the last four centuries.