Bentham's Theory of Law and Public Opinion

Xiaobo Zhai & Michael Quinn (eds.). Bentham's Theory of Law and Public Opinion (Cambridge University Press, 2014).  

"This collection represents the latest research from leading scholars whose work has helped to frame our understanding of Bentham since the publication of H. L. A. Hart's Essays on Bentham. The authors explore fundamental areas of Bentham's thought, including the relationship between the rule of law and public opinion; law and popular prejudices or manipulated tastes; Bentham's methodology versus Hart's; sovereignty and codification; and the language of natural rights. Drawing on original manuscripts and volumes in The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham, the chapters combine philosophical and historical approaches and offer new and more faithful interpretations of Bentham's legal philosophy and its development."
—Publisher's Website

Lord Mansfield: Justice in the Age of Reason

Norman S. Poser (Brooklyn Law School).  Lord Mansfield: Justice in the Age of Reason (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2013).

"Mr. Poser offers us a fascinating portrait. Awarded an earldom by George III, Mansfield was a typical 18th-century grandee, ruthlessly ambitious and casually venal. His career made him extremely rich, and his guarded political style often appeared unscrupulously calculated to accelerate his own advancement. But his mind was extraordinary, and he worked with legendary intensity. . . . Mansfield's judgments ingrained themselves into the legal culture of the English-speaking world. Modern rules governing the use of expert testimony, for instance, trace to Mansfield.  The U.S. Supreme Court, Mr. Poser informs us, has cited Mansfield more than 300 times, on issues from defamation to parental rights." 
—Jeffrey Collins