Drawing on real cases from around the world, this is the side of the law and its functionaries rarely seen: judges who expressed dissenting views in their judgments with remarkable vigour; maverick litigants who sued demons, the Devil, and even God—not out of mere eccentricity, but to prove a point; judges who harangued others over robes, wigs, and mobile phones; instances of judges unduly absorbed in social media; and those who, from the Bench, allowed authority occasionally to overwhelm restraint.

Drawing on real cases from around the world, this is the side of the law and its functionaries rarely seen: judges who expressed dissenting views in their judgments with remarkable vigour; maverick litigants who sued demons, the Devil, and even God—not out of mere eccentricity, but to prove a point; judges who harangued others over robes, wigs, and mobile phones; instances of judges unduly absorbed in social media; and those who, from the Bench, allowed authority occasionally to overwhelm restraint.