This book is a collection of essays that cover a range of topics on law and politics, culled from a long and rich experience of writing and continual participation in public affairs. The essays were, for the most part, delivered as key-note lectures given at international meetings in different venues in Africa, America and Europe. The lead essay crime and punishment in America is concerned with a persistently recurring social (and legal) problem in the United States that has eluded satisfactory resolution for generations.