The birth​ of Prince George obviates the immediate need for the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 which introduced gender equality into the line of succession. Section 2 of the Act addresses,...

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A Pound Here, a Pound There

David Runciman, 21 August 2014

Once the state has decided to legalise gambling, two other choices remain: will it be permissible to profit from it, and will it be permissible to promote it?

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Time Lords: In the Catacombs

Anthony Grafton, 31 July 2014

Both Catholic and Protestant champions were expected to emulate the lives they could read about on the page and see on the walls of a church. Accounts and images of martyrdom dwelt on the details of torture...

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On Cruelty: The Death Penalty

Judith Butler, 17 July 2014

As injury comes to be conceived as payment in default, the psyche develops a penitentiary logic.

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For three years​ David Blunkett, then the Labour home secretary, had an affair with Kimberly Fortier, publisher of the Spectator. The affair came to an end in the summer of 2004. A few weeks...

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A Few Home Truths: R.G. Collingwood

Jonathan Rée, 19 June 2014

‘An Autobiography​’ by R.G. Collingwood must be one of the most popular philosophical books in the English language, but when it was published in 1939, it was not expected to do...

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Short Cuts: The Crimean Tatars

David Motadel, 17 April 2014

The strongest​ local resistance to Putin’s annexation of Crimea has come from the peninsula’s Muslim minority. The Crimean Tatars, 12 per cent of the population, largely boycotted...

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Closed Material

Nicholas Phillips, 17 April 2014

Closed material is evidence put before the court that is not merely concealed from the public, but from the other party.

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This interesting, careful and occasionally outrageous book explores the complex interaction and competition between the attitudes of affirmation and regret that are almost inevitable as we look...

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Not in the Public Interest

Stephen Sedley, 6 March 2014

In 1916 the secretary of the Anti-German Union, Sir George Makgill, a Scottish baronet of extreme right-wing views, brought judicial review proceedings to remove from the Privy Council two wealthy Jewish...

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Sisi’s Turn: What does Sisi want?

Hazem Kandil, 20 February 2014

Three years after its once inspiring revolt, Egypt has become a police state more vigorous than Nasser’s.

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One of the ways​ in which literary texts are capacious is their ability to contain, within themselves, imaginary books: books that the more literal-minded real world isn’t yet able to...

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Faking the Canon: Forging the Bible

Diarmaid MacCulloch, 6 February 2014

Other faiths have sacred books aplenty, but you can imagine them existing perfectly well as religious practices and ways of life in the absence of any particular one of their holy texts. Not so Christianity....

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You might think you’re looking at an advent calendar, but there is no Nativity in this stunning set of paintings from the church of Däräsge Maryam in northern Ethiopia. The church...

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Wrong Kind of Noise: Silence is Best

Marina Warner, 19 December 2013

By a bizarre twist, G.K. Chesterton may be en route to sanctity: it was reported in August that the Bishop of Northampton has begun a suit for his canonisation. Diarmaid MacCulloch doesn’t...

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Short Cuts: The Lobbying Bill

Francis FitzGibbon, 19 December 2013

The Lobbying Bill – due to complete the Lords committee stage before Christmas – is intended ‘to ensure that people know whose interests are being represented by consultant...

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Disappearing Acts: Aquinas

Terry Eagleton, 5 December 2013

Born around 1225 near the small southern Italian town of Aquino, Thomas Aquinas attended the University of Naples, and while in the city entered the Dominican Order. He then went north to pursue...

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The Pig Walked Free: Animal Trials

Michael Grayshott, 5 December 2013

Crucifixions, burnings, boilings: the walls, windows and alcoves of churches and cathedrals are adorned with all manner of sticky ends. The Church of the Holy Trinity in Falaise, Normandy once...

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