Peter Brett
Biographic Data
| ID | 285704 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Peter Brett |
| GIVEN NAMES | Peter |
| FAMILY NAME | Brett |
| SIGNATURE | BRETT P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Queen Mary University of London |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3519-0345 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 24 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1957 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Dissenting judges in Southern Africa’s transforming judicial cultures
Rates of judicial dissent vary dramatically between Southern Africa’s appeal courts, even though judges frequently circulate between their benches. This variation cannot be explained by the ideological distance between judges or by their judicial philosophies. Differing institutional arrangements provide better but still incomplete explanations. These arrangements reflect dramatic transformations in the region’s judicial cultures. Analysing these…
My Own Liberator
Black Judges in South Africa’s Legal Empire
Exploring the political frontier in Australian schools
Contemporary liberal democracies face complex and disruptive challenges, such as toxic populism, culture wars, political polarization, religious fundamentalism, the climate emergency, global conflicts, and the influence of powerful social media platforms. This is the disconcerting world that young people are growing up in and need support in understanding and mediating. This paper critically analyses the Australian Civics and Citizenship educatio…
The New Politics of Judicial Appointments in Southern Africa
Political scientists analyze the global rise of judicial appointment commissions as a response to judicialized politics. They argue that appointment processes have formalized to include more constituencies now affected by judicial decisions. This article presents evidence from Southern Africa confounding their expectations. In this region, formalization has social as well as political origins. Over the last two decades, the senior judiciary has s…
Revolutionary legality and the Burkinabè insurrection
Coup leaders often purport to restore constitutional order. During Burkina Faso's 2014 'insurrection', however, Blaise Compaoré's opponents advanced detailed (international) legal arguments that significantly constrained their subsequent conduct. Theirs was to be a legal revolution. This article situates this stance within Burkina Faso's distinctive history of urban protest, whilst emphasising under-analysed international sources for the insurrec…
Politics by Other Means in South Africa Today
Rick Abel's classic Politics by Other Means (1995) used South Africa to argue for law's ‘potential nobility’, but it did so avoiding a heroic mode characteristic of much anti‐apartheid writing. Abel showed how law could, with strenuous exertion, be turned into a defensive shield for the oppressed. As a sword, however, it was ‘two‐edged’. It allowed the powerful to frustrate or overturn hard‐won symbolic victories. Recently, the heroic mode has re…
Human Rights and the Judicialisation of African Politics
Human Rights and the Judicialisation of African Politics shows readers how central questions in African politics have entered courtrooms over the last three decades, and provides the first transnational explanation for this development. The book begins with three conditions that have made judicialisation possible in Africa as a whole; new corporate rights norms (including the expansion of indigenous rights), the proliferation of new avenues for l…
Human Rights and the Judicialisation of African Politics
Who are judicial decisions meant for? The ‘global community of law’ in Southern Africa
Rationalist models of judicial decision-making expect courts to defend their institutional integrity in politically sensitive cases. This article presents two African case studies of courts not doing so. They have elicited predictable backlash from executives and placed their institutions in avoidable danger. I argue that judges’ desire for esteem from emerging global judicial networks can explain this otherwise puzzling behaviour. These new netw…
Explaining African participation in international courts
Africa has more international courts than any other continent, yet International Relations scholarship has failed to explain this move to law on the African continent. This article provides such an explanation using Jean-François Bayart’s concept of extraversion. It shows how the creation of international courts in the 1990s and early 2000s was the result of extraverted strategies for attracting international resources and pre-empting donor press…
Judicial reputation
Comparative lawyers have traditionally associated different forms of judicial organisation with different legal traditions. Civil law systems, on this view, have ‘career’ judiciaries. Judges enter
Routledge handbook of African politics
The editors of this handbook have succeeded in assembling a genuine all-star cast of contributors. Most of the 32 brief chapters summarise decades of research by their author on the topic. For mast
Cause Lawyers sans frontières
Cette contribution explore le phénomène grandissant de remise en cause, par voie judiciaire, de questions afférentes à la légitimité gouvernementale par de simples citoyens. Pour ce faire, elle s'appuie sur la genèse et le déroulement de trois affaires récentes en Afrique australe. Un aspect marquant de ces trois affaires a été l'implication d'avocats sud-africains. Trois facteurs expliquent les ressorts de ce « cause lawyering ». La mondialisati…
Explaining South Africa's Bill of Rights
Ideational approaches to politics are frequently criticised for indeterminacy. In comparative constitutional politics, critics have alleged that the ‘human rights revolution’ cannot explain why bills of rights were adopted in different places and different times. Ideational scholars have not responded convincingly. Focusing on the famous South African case study, and drawing on theories of belief formation and legitimation in interpretive politic…
Sustainable school transformation
Beyond ‘Navel-Gazing’ and ‘Mush’
This article explores how teaching about identity in Australia has been framed by the recent historical and political context. It analyses the influential characterisation of Australian identity during John Howard's period in office between 1996 and 2007. The findings of Australian education researchers relating to young people's sense of what it means to be Australian are reviewed. The author goes on to discuss the curriculum content, language, …
Handbook of Digital Homecare
Breaking the Cycle of Educational Alienation
Breaking the Cycle of Educational Alienation: A Multi-Professional Approach. By Richard Williams and Colin Pritchard. Pp. 217. Maidenhead: Open University Press. 2006. £18.99 (pbk), £55.00 (hbk). ISBN 0 335 21917 9 (pbk), 0 335 21918 7 (hbk)
Political Dinners in Early Nineteenth‐Century Britain
Strict Responsibility
Criminal Responsibility
A Limitation On Executive Power
North Borneo
Journal Article North Borneo: Redrafting the Land Legislation of Brunei Get access Peter Brett Peter Brett *LL.B. (London), LL.M. (Western Australia); Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Melbourne Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Journal of Comparative Law, Volume 6, Issue 4, Autumn 1957, Pages 565–577, https://doi.org/10.2307/838169 Published: 01 October 1957
Conditional Pardons and the Commutation of Death Sentences
Political Dinners in Early Nineteenth‐Century Britain
Who are judicial decisions meant for? The ‘global community of law’ in Southern Africa
Rationalist models of judicial decision-making expect courts to defend their institutional integrity in politically sensitive cases. This article presents two African case studies of courts not doing so. They have elicited predictable backlash from executives and placed their institutions in avoidable danger. I argue that judges’ desire for esteem from emerging global judicial networks can explain this otherwise puzzling behaviour. These new netw…
Exploring the political frontier in Australian schools
Contemporary liberal democracies face complex and disruptive challenges, such as toxic populism, culture wars, political polarization, religious fundamentalism, the climate emergency, global conflicts, and the influence of powerful social media platforms. This is the disconcerting world that young people are growing up in and need support in understanding and mediating. This paper critically analyses the Australian Civics and Citizenship educatio…
The New Politics of Judicial Appointments in Southern Africa
Political scientists analyze the global rise of judicial appointment commissions as a response to judicialized politics. They argue that appointment processes have formalized to include more constituencies now affected by judicial decisions. This article presents evidence from Southern Africa confounding their expectations. In this region, formalization has social as well as political origins. Over the last two decades, the senior judiciary has s…
Explaining African participation in international courts
Africa has more international courts than any other continent, yet International Relations scholarship has failed to explain this move to law on the African continent. This article provides such an explanation using Jean-François Bayart’s concept of extraversion. It shows how the creation of international courts in the 1990s and early 2000s was the result of extraverted strategies for attracting international resources and pre-empting donor press…
Routledge handbook of African politics
The editors of this handbook have succeeded in assembling a genuine all-star cast of contributors. Most of the 32 brief chapters summarise decades of research by their author on the topic. For mast
Cause Lawyers sans frontières
Cette contribution explore le phénomène grandissant de remise en cause, par voie judiciaire, de questions afférentes à la légitimité gouvernementale par de simples citoyens. Pour ce faire, elle s'appuie sur la genèse et le déroulement de trois affaires récentes en Afrique australe. Un aspect marquant de ces trois affaires a été l'implication d'avocats sud-africains. Trois facteurs expliquent les ressorts de ce « cause lawyering ». La mondialisati…
North Borneo
Journal Article North Borneo: Redrafting the Land Legislation of Brunei Get access Peter Brett Peter Brett *LL.B. (London), LL.M. (Western Australia); Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Melbourne Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Journal of Comparative Law, Volume 6, Issue 4, Autumn 1957, Pages 565–577, https://doi.org/10.2307/838169 Published: 01 October 1957
Conditional Pardons and the Commutation of Death Sentences
A Limitation On Executive Power
Criminal Responsibility
Strict Responsibility
Political Dinners in Early Nineteenth‐Century Britain
Breaking the Cycle of Educational Alienation
Breaking the Cycle of Educational Alienation: A Multi-Professional Approach. By Richard Williams and Colin Pritchard. Pp. 217. Maidenhead: Open University Press. 2006. £18.99 (pbk), £55.00 (hbk). ISBN 0 335 21917 9 (pbk), 0 335 21918 7 (hbk)
Handbook of Digital Homecare
Beyond ‘Navel-Gazing’ and ‘Mush’
This article explores how teaching about identity in Australia has been framed by the recent historical and political context. It analyses the influential characterisation of Australian identity during John Howard's period in office between 1996 and 2007. The findings of Australian education researchers relating to young people's sense of what it means to be Australian are reviewed. The author goes on to discuss the curriculum content, language, …
Explaining South Africa's Bill of Rights
Ideational approaches to politics are frequently criticised for indeterminacy. In comparative constitutional politics, critics have alleged that the ‘human rights revolution’ cannot explain why bills of rights were adopted in different places and different times. Ideational scholars have not responded convincingly. Focusing on the famous South African case study, and drawing on theories of belief formation and legitimation in interpretive politic…
Sustainable school transformation
Routledge handbook of African politics
The editors of this handbook have succeeded in assembling a genuine all-star cast of contributors. Most of the 32 brief chapters summarise decades of research by their author on the topic. For mast
Cause Lawyers sans frontières
Cette contribution explore le phénomène grandissant de remise en cause, par voie judiciaire, de questions afférentes à la légitimité gouvernementale par de simples citoyens. Pour ce faire, elle s'appuie sur la genèse et le déroulement de trois affaires récentes en Afrique australe. Un aspect marquant de ces trois affaires a été l'implication d'avocats sud-africains. Trois facteurs expliquent les ressorts de ce « cause lawyering ». La mondialisati…
Judicial reputation
Comparative lawyers have traditionally associated different forms of judicial organisation with different legal traditions. Civil law systems, on this view, have ‘career’ judiciaries. Judges enter
Human Rights and the Judicialisation of African Politics
Human Rights and the Judicialisation of African Politics shows readers how central questions in African politics have entered courtrooms over the last three decades, and provides the first transnational explanation for this development. The book begins with three conditions that have made judicialisation possible in Africa as a whole; new corporate rights norms (including the expansion of indigenous rights), the proliferation of new avenues for l…
Human Rights and the Judicialisation of African Politics
Who are judicial decisions meant for? The ‘global community of law’ in Southern Africa
Rationalist models of judicial decision-making expect courts to defend their institutional integrity in politically sensitive cases. This article presents two African case studies of courts not doing so. They have elicited predictable backlash from executives and placed their institutions in avoidable danger. I argue that judges’ desire for esteem from emerging global judicial networks can explain this otherwise puzzling behaviour. These new netw…
Explaining African participation in international courts
Africa has more international courts than any other continent, yet International Relations scholarship has failed to explain this move to law on the African continent. This article provides such an explanation using Jean-François Bayart’s concept of extraversion. It shows how the creation of international courts in the 1990s and early 2000s was the result of extraverted strategies for attracting international resources and pre-empting donor press…
Politics by Other Means in South Africa Today
Rick Abel's classic Politics by Other Means (1995) used South Africa to argue for law's ‘potential nobility’, but it did so avoiding a heroic mode characteristic of much anti‐apartheid writing. Abel showed how law could, with strenuous exertion, be turned into a defensive shield for the oppressed. As a sword, however, it was ‘two‐edged’. It allowed the powerful to frustrate or overturn hard‐won symbolic victories. Recently, the heroic mode has re…
Revolutionary legality and the Burkinabè insurrection
Coup leaders often purport to restore constitutional order. During Burkina Faso's 2014 'insurrection', however, Blaise Compaoré's opponents advanced detailed (international) legal arguments that significantly constrained their subsequent conduct. Theirs was to be a legal revolution. This article situates this stance within Burkina Faso's distinctive history of urban protest, whilst emphasising under-analysed international sources for the insurrec…
The New Politics of Judicial Appointments in Southern Africa
Political scientists analyze the global rise of judicial appointment commissions as a response to judicialized politics. They argue that appointment processes have formalized to include more constituencies now affected by judicial decisions. This article presents evidence from Southern Africa confounding their expectations. In this region, formalization has social as well as political origins. Over the last two decades, the senior judiciary has s…
Exploring the political frontier in Australian schools
Contemporary liberal democracies face complex and disruptive challenges, such as toxic populism, culture wars, political polarization, religious fundamentalism, the climate emergency, global conflicts, and the influence of powerful social media platforms. This is the disconcerting world that young people are growing up in and need support in understanding and mediating. This paper critically analyses the Australian Civics and Citizenship educatio…
My Own Liberator
Black Judges in South Africa’s Legal Empire
Dissenting judges in Southern Africa’s transforming judicial cultures
Rates of judicial dissent vary dramatically between Southern Africa’s appeal courts, even though judges frequently circulate between their benches. This variation cannot be explained by the ideological distance between judges or by their judicial philosophies. Differing institutional arrangements provide better but still incomplete explanations. These arrangements reflect dramatic transformations in the region’s judicial cultures. Analysing these…
Political science (18 works) · Law (16 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Law (10 works) · Politics (9 works) · Judicial and Constitutional Studies (7 works) · Citation (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · History (4 works) · Legal Issues in South Africa (4 works)