McLibel
The McLibel trial, the longest case in British legal history, is an unlikely morality tale of our times. In 1990 McDonald's slapped writs on five London activists for allegedly libelling it in a leaflet entitled What's Wrong With McDonald's?. Three were unwilling to fight a legal battle. But the multinational giant had not banked on the dogged determination of Helen Steel and Dave Morris, who refused to apologize.
Denied a jury trial and ineligible for legal aid, they were forced to defend themselves, pitted against some of the 
top libel lawyers in the country. This unlikely duo became the symbo'of a burgeoning protest movement against the globalization represented by corporations such as McDonald's. For two years the trial ground through issues from employment, advertising, recycling and litter to nutrition, animal rights and deforestation. A crucial set of opposites emerged. McLibel pitted two philosophies against each other. Two ways of eating, of treating the planet, two codes of behaving in the late twentieth century, of dealing with people, animals and the environment.
The McLibel Support Campaign grew around them - lawyers, nutritionists, ex-McDonald's workers, mothers, teenagers all weighed in with financial and other aid. A site was created on the Internet, called McSpotlight, publicizing and giving millions access to the issues of the trial.
And a very different side of McDonald's to that portrayed by its $2 billion annual advertising spend was opened to public scrutiny. A company this size had never before been so carefully or publicly examined. The tables were turned and the corporation found itself on trial.
The conclusion of the trial (though the verdict is still awaited) offers the first opportunity to measure the lasting impact - and the very real political and legal significance - of the case. McLibel, the book, tells the gripping inside story of this epic clash of cultures and allows the public to judge for itself.