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A History of Political Trials: From Charles I to Saddam Hussein - John Laughland Peter Lang, Oxford, £12-99. ISBN 978-1-906165-00-0.
John Laughland provides an extensive backdrop to the very topical contemporary issue of 'political trials'. In recent times we have witnessed the events at the International War Crimes Tribunal at The Hague and the continuing Iraqi trials in Baghdad but this book places them in the context of an historical phenomenon from the time of Charles I.
In his very carefully researched and detailed analysis, Laughland basically argues that, in embarking on such trials, there is a...