Denis Cowen (1917-2007) is renowned for his work on negotiable instruments. Selected Essays presents readers with other facets of his life's work. His seminal essays and articles helped define areas of law such as constitutional law, environmental law, law of property and statutory interpretation. As a public intellectual in the liberal tradition, he spoke with great timeliness, insight and insistence, during apartheid, about the need for a court-enforceable bill of rights, academic freedom and pre-publication censorship.

Cowen on Law: Selected Essays spans more than 50 years of his lively, contentious and beautifully constructed texts. Leading legal thinkers introduce newly-accessible texts and provide us with a contemporary, evaluative lens. The book reveals to readers a fascinating mind. It also serves as an engrossing reflection on South Africa's legal past as well as the intersection of law and society.