From: The Law and Politics Book Review
Vol. 15 No.4 (April 2005), pp.299-318
As a service to subscribers, the REVIEW provides this brief summary of the contents of recent reference works, anthologies of previously published materials, textbooks and collected readings designed for students, casebooks designed for undergraduate and law school use, later editions of books previously reviewed in this journal, and other specialized publications. Unless noted, the comments are taken from the book’s jacket cover or the publisher’s webpage.
In this issue, books from
American Psychological Association
American Psychological Association
COPING WITH CROSS-EXAMINATION AND OTHER
PATHWAYS TO EFFECTIVE TESTIMONY, by Stanley L. Brodsky. Washington,
DC: American Psychological Association, 2004.
249pp. $29.95 (soft cover). ISBN: 1-59147-094-3.
In his latest collection of essays for forensic psychologists, Stanley L. Brodsky extends the lessons of his popular Testifying in Court series by focusing on the cross-examination, the trial phase that expert witnesses dread most. A leading teacher, scholar, and expert witness, Dr. Brodsky offers lessons and advice from the trenches to defuse the vulnerability psychologists may feel on the witness stand.
More than 50 brief essays, each summarized by a maxim, teach readers about the typical techniques attorneys use to challenge experts’ credibility and the basis of their opinions. Pointers on preparation and effective narrative style are included, backed by findings from the emerging literature on the assessment of expert testimony. [*300]
ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS AND LAW: THE INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY, by Robert J. Goldstein. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, November 2004. 690pp. $250 (hardback). ISBN: 0 7546 2313 0.
This collection explores a broad range of topics approaching
environmental ethics from many different angles. A common thread running
through the volume is the analysis of ethical principles as the backbone of
practical policies and law for the benefit of the environment, and ultimately
for the benefit of its inhabitants. The contributors are all at the forefront
of their respective fields and fall into two essential categories:
well-established scholars in the field of environmental ethics; and a group of
newer voices that have followed what might be characterized as the first wave
of environmental ethics scholarship.
TEACHING THE LAW SCHOOL CURRICULUM, edited by Steven Friedland and Gerald F. Hess. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, October 2004. 438pp. $37.00 (paper). ISBN: 0-89089-244-X.
This new book on teaching law draws upon the wisdom of hundreds of legal educators to provide ideas, materials, and alternatives for teaching a variety of law school courses. The book offers guidance for new and experienced law teachers to plan and deliver effective courses. From Business Associations to Family Law, Federal Income Taxation to Torts, each chapter addresses one of the fifteen courses most students take during their legal education.
Each chapter has five sections: (1) Approach, encompassing global issues about a course, such as goals, organizational scheme, general philosophy, syllabi, and coverage; (2) Materials, evaluating what kinds of materials enhance a course; (3) Class Exercises, evaluating what teaching and learning activities work well in a course and suggesting in- and out-of-class projects that promote learning; (4) Brief Gems, in which teachers share devices and ideas that have proven effective in their classes; and (5) Evaluation of Students, assessing when and how students should be evaluated and discussing teachers’ thoughts on feedback and assessment both during and at the end of the course.
FEDERAL HABEAS CORPUS: CASES AND MATERIALS, by Andrea D. Lyon, Emily Hughes and Mary Prosser. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, January 2005. 556pp. $75.00 (cloth). $60.00 (student). ISBN: 0-89089-586-4.
Habeas
corpus law changed dramatically after Congress passed the Anti-Terrorism and
Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) in 1996. This new book provides a
comprehensive view of the latest developments in the field and will continue to
be supplemented as Congress passes new legislation and as courts try to make
sense of how that legislation affects habeas law. [*301]
After
providing a background on the history of habeas corpus and an overview of
common habeas corpus claims, the book examines subject matter jurisdiction,
habeas corpus litigation, clemency, stays of execution, and innocence. The book
concludes by examining the future of habeas corpus litigation.
While this book is primarily
intended for law students, it will be useful for attorneys specializing in
post-conviction and habeas work. It will also be a valuable addition to the
libraries of appellate public defenders across the country.
LAW AND PUBLIC POLICY: A SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH, by Lynne L. Dallas. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, December 2004. 788pp. $90.00 (Casebound). $70.00 (Student). ISBN: 0-89089-234-2.
This
textbook provides rich course materials that permit students to explore in a
variety of contexts the interrelationships between law and economic/social
processes. It draws on a variety of economic approaches (not only neoclassical
economics) and other social sciences, such as psychology, sociology,
anthropology and political science, for the tools of public policy analysis. It
offers students an interdisciplinary, values-based approach to public policy
that is designed to take into account the power implications and distributional
effects of laws and stresses the importance to effective regulation of
attention to historical context, philosophical beliefs, culture, existing
institutions, working rules and sources of power. Each chapter of the book
contains materials from the social sciences and about legal regulations.
The
textbook begins with an introductory chapter on law and socioeconomics. It
follows with background chapters on legal regulation and cognitive psychology;
economic fairness and human well-being; legal compliance and legal
socialization; culture, norms and legal regulation; and cooperation, trust and
the law. These chapters address such issues as the significance of the
rationality assumption to legal regulations, the relevance of customs and
conceptions of fairness to legal, political and economic decision making and
the relationship of moral orientation to judicial and administrative decisions.
The textbook addresses important public policy areas. It includes chapters on
race, gender and other forms of discrimination; the domain of markets, which
includes the issues surrounding surrogacy contracts and egg donors; the complex
interrelationships between legal regulations and changing norms in the society,
workplace and within families; corporate governance issues in the wake of
Enron; social responsibility issues confronting domestic and multinational
corporations; globalization, including the impact of globalization on U.S. and
foreign workers due to trade and capital liberalization; and problems of
emerging market economies. The textbook contains extensive notes in each
chapter which provide information and questions that serve as the basis for
vigorous class discussions. This book is intended as a primary textbook for law
and public policy courses at law schools, business schools and for public
affairs, political science and prelaw programs. The textbook is also intended
as a primary [*302] textbook for law and economics and law and socioeconomics
courses. Individual chapters may enrich courses on subjects such as civil rights,
family law, women and the law, international law and corporations.
INTERNATIONAL OCEAN LAW: MATERIALS AND COMMENTARIES, by Ted L. McDorman, Alexander J. Bolla, Douglas M. Johnston, and John Duff. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, January 2005. 448pp. $80.00 (Casebound). $58.00 (Student). ISBN: 0-89089-048-X.
International Ocean Law is an introductory volume for a law school course that
focuses on international law of the sea. Authors McDorman, Bolla, Johnston, and
Duff bring together the important provisions of international treaties,
international court and arbitration cases, and selected government documents
(including statutes) and interlace them with commentary and excerpts.
The
concentration on commentaries and textual material rather than cases, statutes,
and treaty provisions (although some of these are present) is particularly
appropriate for an introductory course. The volume deals with the building
blocks of international ocean law. For students, this means that it covers the
fundamental aspects of the law of the sea while alerting them to complex
related issues that are also part of understanding international ocean law.
This volume is equally usable by novice and experienced professors of Ocean
Law.
STUDIES IN AMERICAN TORT LAW (THIRD EDITION), by Vincent R. Johnson and Alan Gunn. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, January 2005. 1120pp. $90.00 (Casebound). $70.00 (Student). ISBN 1-59460-034-1.
A careful mix of law, policy,
ethics, and economics, Studies in American Tort Law is designed for
first-year torts courses. Recognizing that torts is a prime battleground for
social policy, this book seeks to reflect not only the current rules on injury
compensation, but also the policy choices underlying those rules. Within a
clear, doctrinal framework, a range of views is presented, reflecting dominant
themes in tort law. Students are introduced to, but not overwhelmed with, law
and economics. Economic analysis is employed when particularly useful (e.g., in
connection with the negligence balancing test, strict liability, and
calculation of damages). The law-and-economics notes can be used as a starting
point for classroom discussion, or they can be allowed to stand on their own,
without need for elaboration.
ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES IN CONFLICT OF LAWS: CASES AND MATERIALS (FOURTH EDITION), by Gary J. Simson. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, January 2005. 912pp. $85.00 (Casebound) . $70.00 (Student). ISBN: 0-89089-434-5.
This new
edition updates the book to 2004 with significant developments in U.S.
conflicts law and scholarship. It includes more than a dozen new principal
cases that not only enhance the breadth and depth of coverage but also are
lively and interesting to teach. Many other new cases receive extended [*303]
treatment as note cases. Much of the new material reflects the increasing
importance in this country’s courts of international conflicts. The casebook is
accompanied by a teacher’s manual.
Like the
earlier editions, the Fourth Edition features an innovative organization of the
choice-of-law materials. After highlighting the natural advantages of applying
forum law, Simson examines choice-of-law policies that, at times, have led
courts to reject these natural advantages. Professors who have adopted previous
edition of the book have praised this organization for its effectiveness in
stimulating debate about both the old and new learning in choice of law.
Professors using the book also have expressed enthusiasm about its teachability,
and they point to another distinctive feature of the book - its format in
introductions and notes - as particularly helpful in this regard. The book does
not follow the usual practice of posing in the notes a number of questions
tailored to the principal case or cases that come before. Instead, questions of
some generality and scope are presented in the introduction to each chapter,
and the notes are reserved for summaries of relevant cases, excerpts from
conflicts scholarship, and other materials shedding light on the issues raised
by the principal cases.
TRADEMARK LAW AND POLICY, by Kenneth L. Port. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, October 2004. 724pp. $90.00 (cloth). $70.00 (Student). ISBN: 1-59460-019-8.
Trademark law in the United States
has expanded exponentially in the last decade. Trademark owners are finding
many new and creative ways to use their trademarks on the Internet, in domain
names, and in new product configurations. Trademarks have become one of the most
significant assets corporations hold. This book provides not only a balanced
introduction to the law of trademarks and the policies underlying this area of
law, it also challenges students to consider new and developing forms and uses
of trademarks that we will likely see in the near future.
INTERNATIONAL BANKING: CASES, MATERIALS, AND PROBLEMS (SECOND EDITION), by Michael P. Malloy. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, January 2005. 602pp. $85.00 (Casebound). $64.00 (student). ISBN: 1-59460-078-3.
This book
focuses primarily on the regulation of international banking at the federal
level, but with extensive international and comparative materials. It is
accompanied by a 158-page document supplement that includes up-to-date
statutory materials and the Bank for International Settlement’s Core Principles
for Effective Banking Supervision.
The
Casebook is organized around the birth-to-death experience of international
financial services institutions. The book contains case excerpts, related
materials, and over 180 detailed problems and notes. Many of the problems are
interlinked to assist the reader in gaining a direct understanding of the
significance of the excerpted cases and materials, and to provide a concrete
context for the concepts discussed in the text.
Malloy
addresses important and topical issues such as the changing nature of the [*304]
regulatory environment, e-banking, problems of international lending and its
regulations, supervision of transborder bank failures, and foreign bank secrecy
laws, antiterrorism controls and economic sanctions, among many others. This
book has become the definitive text on the regulation of international banking.
The book
contains an extensive bibliography keyed to the subject matter of each chapter.
The book works extremely well as a casebook for an introductory course in
international banking and as a basic reading and resource text for an advanced
seminar.
CORPORATIONS: A CONTEMPORARY APPROACH, by Lawrence E. Mitchell and Michael Diamond. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, August 2004. 896pp. $90.00 (Casebound). $72.00 (Student). ISBN: 0-89089-742-5.
Corporations: A Contemporary
Approach offers a fresh perspective on the
traditional corporate law course while retaining most of the classic cases.
Integrating economics, sociology, philosophy, and psychology, the book
incorporates contemporary corporate issues through cases and materials that
situate the corporation in its social and political setting. This casebook
takes a new approach to the organization of the traditional materials on
directors’ and officers’ duties by integrating materials like derivative
litigation and indemnification. Issues involving close corporations (including
promoter’s liability, limited liability, piercing and other related issues) are
gathered in one chapter while also retaining traditional case materials. The
notes and questions provoke thought not only on legal issues and the
relationship between cases and theories, but also on the effect corporations
have on their constituents and communities. There is a chapter devoted to the
corporation’s place in modern society which covers traditional issues as well
as more novel ones. A teacher’s manual will be available.
ELECTION LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS (THIRD EDITION), by Daniel Hays Lowenstein and Richard L. Hasen. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, August 2004. 1096pp. $95.00 (Casebound). $75.00 (Student). ISBN: 1-59460-081-3.
The revised third edition of Election
Law adds to the second edition’s already comprehensive treatment of issues
of election regulation and reform. New materials include: coverage in depth of
the Bipartisan Campaign Reform (McCain-Feingold) Act of 2002 and of McConnell
v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court’s decision upholding most
of the BCRA and pointing the way toward the constitutional law of campaign
finance in the 21st century; coverage of recent developments in redistricting,
voting rights and racial gerrymandering, including the 2004 Pennsylvania
redistricting decision, the Supreme Court’s first consideration of partisan
gerrymandering since 1986; and a streamlined treatment of legal and political
issues related to the Florida recount controversy, together subsequent
applications of Bush v. Gore, by the lower courts, including its
application in the 2003 California recall election.
Like its
predecessor, Election Law, 3rd edition covers the right to vote and
voter [*305] turnout, legislative districting, the Voting Rights Act and the
racial gerrymandering cause of action, ballot propositions, constitutional
rights and obligations of political parties, bribery, regulation of campaign
speech, campaign finance, and term limits.
This
interdisciplinary book is unparalleled in its combination of materials drawn
from law and political science. Lowenstein and Hasen include edited versions of
most of the Supreme Court’s most important election law decisions of the last
four decades, as well as a generous sampling of lower federal court and state
decisions, many raising novel and challenging issues.
The book
is intended to give students, legislators, attorneys and general readers a more
sophisticated understanding of issues central to citizenship in a democracy. A
teacher’s manual is available and cumulative supplements will be provided,
typically on an annual basis.
FOSTER CARE LAW: A
PRIMER, by Harvey Schweitzer and Judith Larsen. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2004. 192pp.
$30.00 (paper). ISBN: 0-89089-321-7.
Foster Care Law: A Primer introduces social work professionals and attorneys to the most significant and typical legal problems that may arise from the moment a neglected or abused child enters the foster care system to the child’s exit from it. The authors look at law through the eyes of the main participants — the foster child, the foster parents, biological parents, public foster care agencies, private foster care agencies, and the courts — and describe the legal relationships that each has to the other. In explaining the problems most likely to occur, they note the legal authorities that must be consulted and ways that courts and legislatures have resolved the issues.
The book presents numerous aids to help social work professionals cope with the legal milieu: a glossary of legal terms; an appendix describing how to find cases, law journals, and legislative material; and a flow chart describing the legal life of a foster care case. Moreover, the text provides reader-friendly descriptions of the legal context.
Lawyers will welcome explanations of the intricate legal relationships between such entities as public foster care agencies, their private contractors who provide foster homes, federal funding agencies, and the courts. A pertinent selected bibliography and an appendix dedicated to liability issues will give any lawyer a running start to resolve a particular foster care case.
This ground-breaking book gives an overview of this complex field because each state has its own practices, laws, and local rules that govern both foster care systems and court process. The authors have untangled this confusing web, and shown the patterns that prevail overall. The book will work for anyone trying to make sense of the foster care system, in any state.
SEXUAL HARASSMENT LAW: HISTORY, CASES, AND THEORY, by Jennifer Ann Drobac. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2005. 1144pp. $95.00 (cloth). $75.00 (student). ISBN: 0-89089-369-1. [*306]
This groundbreaking casebook
offers a comprehensive survey of the legal history, theory, and practice of
sexual harassment law, beginning with the passage of Title VII of the 1964
Civil Rights Act. The text explores topics including the intersection of race,
gender, sexual orientation and class; the reasonable person’s standard; comparisons
to rape law; public policy considerations; investigations; remedial action;
common defenses; and damages. Succeeding chapters introduce sexual harassment
in schools under Title IX, in housing under Title VIII, and in other contexts,
such as in prisons and the military. Part II emphasizes the practice of sexual
harassment law, including aspects of civil procedure, evidence, administrative
law, and alternative dispute resolution.
Students learn to apply the substance of sexual harassment law as well as develop an appreciation of legal ethics through hypothetical scenarios based on actual practice dilemmas. Drobac brings the history and application of the law to life with excerpts of the senate confirmation hearings of Clarence Thomas, the Jones v. Clinton decisions, and media coverage and strategies of other high profile cases. This text is appropriate for large lecture class or seminar use by law and business school faculty, as well as by faculty in political science, legal studies, and feminist studies. A teacher’s manual is forthcoming.
AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW (SIXTH EDITION),
by Louis Fisher. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2005. 1152pp.
$90.00 (cloth). $68.00
(student). ISBN: 1-59460-120-8.
One of the most widely used constitutional law textbooks is back in a new edition. The only book that develops constitutional law in the comprehensive sense, the sixth edition not only contains the results of court decisions but highlights the efforts of legislatures, executives, the states, and the general public and covers all new developments in case law, congressional statutes, presidential policies, and initiatives undertaken by states under their own constitutions. Fisher illustrates how both judicial and non-judicial forces shape constitutional law. Compared to other texts, this book offers more citations to earlier decisions, allowing the reader to research areas in greater depth and understand the process of trial and error used to shape constitutional principles. A broad range of cases (not just landmark cases) is combined with nonjudicial contributions.
SEPARATION OF POWERS LAW (SECOND EDITION), by Peter M. Shane and Harold H. Bruff. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2005. 1200pp. $95.00 (casebound). $75.00 (student). ISBN: 0-89089-399-3.
Presidential
impeachment, Bush v. Gore, the authorization for military tribunals to try
American civilians for criminal offenses, executive privilege squabbles with
courts and Congress, the rise and fall of the line-item veto — it is impossible
to overstate the significance of the inter-branch confrontations that have
promised to revolutionize separation of powers understandings since the
mid-1990s.
In Separation
of Powers Law, Second Edition, Professors (and former law deans) Shane and
Bruff have updated [*307] their treatment of this critical area to encompass
these and other dramatic issues, such as the impact of 9/11 on the law of
electronics surveillance and the capacity of the executive branch to withhold
sensitive information on national policy grounds. The books retains its clear
structure and historical perspective, plus an emphasis on the ethical
challenges posed for constitutional lawyers in the executive and legislative
branches seeking to address novel constitutional issues in professionally
appropriate ways.
The
authors continue to introduce key episodes not only through judicial decisions,
but also through administrative orders and memoranda, opinions of the Attorney
General and the Office of Legal Counsel, and legislative documents, presenting
a broad spectrum of the kinds of legal materials that government lawyers
actually consult.
NATIONAL SECURITY LAW (SECOND EDITION), by John Norton Moore and Robert F. Turner. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2005. 1424pp. $110.00 (Casebound). $85.00 (student). ISBN: 1-59460-023-6.
The
academic field of national security law began more than three decades ago at
the University of Virginia School of Law when Professor John Norton Moore
recognized a need to prepare law students to deal with legal problems involving
the national security of the United States and began offering a course entitled
“law and national security.” In 1981, the editors co-founded the Center for
National Security Law (CNSL) at Virginia, and in 1990 the first edition of this
landmark text was published. Since then, CNSL has run more than a dozen summer
National Security Law Institutes to help prepare professors and government
practitioners to teach or work in this growing new field, and courses dealing
with national security law are being taught at most American law schools.
This
remarkable new edition includes contributions by more than two dozen scholars
and practitioners from the United States and abroad, including a judge on the
International Court of Justice, a former Director of the Arms Control and
Disarmament Agency, the senior national security lawyer at the FBI, a former
Legal Adviser to the National Security Council, and distinguished professors
from major universities. In addition to updated revisions of more traditional
topics like war powers, terrorism, intelligence, arms control, treaties, human
rights, immigration, trade, environmental law, and freedom of expression, the
new edition includes chapters on space law, homeland defense, information
warfare, and a revolutionary new theoretical approach to the origins of war —
making National Security Law the most comprehensive and up-to-date text
in the field.
SPORTS AND INEQUALITY, by Michael J. Cozzillio and Robert L. Hayman, Jr. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2005. 1096pp. $100.00 (cloth). $80.00 (student). ISBN: 0-89089-290-3.
Sports
and Inequality is a comprehensive
collection of annotated writings examining the legal and social implications of
discrimination in both the professional and amateur sports contexts. The text
examines the full [*308] scope of sports discrimination issues, specifically,
the history of and contemporary experience with discrimination based on race,
gender, disability, and sexual orientation.
The text
features an introductory chapter on the inter-relationship of law, culture, and
sports, and discrete introductory overviews of the American experience with
race, gender, disability, and sexual orientation. The text provides a detailed
examination of sports discrimination issues, including disparities in
employment and educational contexts and the exclusion of persons from public
facilities or services based on race, gender, or disability. Topics include
racial inequalities on the playing fields and in the front offices of amateur
and professional sports; the impact of NCAA eligibility criteria; the effects
and future of Title IX; gender segregation and exclusion in professional
sports; the impact and persistence of private clubs; the relationship between
sports and sexual violence; covert and overt homophobia and sexual orientation
discrimination in sports; and sports opportunities for people with
disabilities.
The text
is designed to be accessible to a variety of audiences, and is appropriate for
use in law school courses, as well as in undergraduate and graduate courses. As
the only text to offer a comprehensive and detailed treatment of its topic, it
is also uniquely valuable as a research tool for academics, journalists, or
interested lay readers.
ENTERTAINMENT LAW AND PRACTICE, by Jon M. Garon. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2005. 790pp. $90.00 (casebound). $70.00 (student). ISBN: 0-89089-514-7.
This
casebook provides a comprehensive survey of the primary entertainment law
practice areas, including theater, motion pictures, music, and television.
Although the book does not attempt to serve as a casebook for copyright, First
Amendment, or trademark law, each of these legal doctrines are covered in sufficient
fashion that a student without prior exposure to one or more of these doctrinal
areas can still participate in an Entertainment Law course.
The book
addresses both the practical aspects of entertainment and the fundamental
underpinnings of entertainment law. The selection of topics is based on what
practitioners face, and the materials are selected to build a solid theoretical
basis for that topic.
This is
the only book in the entertainment law field to address and integrate the need
to teach the practitioner’s issues with the jurisprudential framework necessary
to make the course appropriate to the law school curriculum. It is especially
useful for adjunct professors teaching the course because of its organization
around the relevant issues to the practitioner. A teacher’s manual is available.
RACE LAW: CASES, COMMENTARY, AND QUESTIONS (SECOND EDITION), by F. Michael Higginbotham. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2005. 820pp. $90.00 (casebound). $70.00 (student). ISBN: 1-59460-103-8.
Maintaining
the easily readable style and tightly organized format of the first edition, Race
Law, Second Edition, provides an in-depth examination of the [*309] issue
of race in the American Legal process from the formation of the United States
Constitution in 1787 to the present. In this book, Higginbotham combines a
unique blend of moderately edited original source materials and scholarly
analysis including historical background information, legislation, state and
federal court decisions, commentary, biographical information, and questions.
Fully revised and updated, the second edition offers important new material on
race classification, critical race theory, hate speech, language, and
affirmative action. Higginbotham also explores the values of the individuals in
power and probes how these values affected their choice of options.
Race
Law is divided into six parts: Analysis
and Framework; Slavery; Reconstruction, Citizenship, and Sovereignty;
Segregation; Attempted Eradication of Inequality; and Recent Controversies.
While the material is presented primarily in chronological order, a few cases
are strategically placed for pedagogical reasons consistent with the book’s
focus on values. Designed for those with limited exposure to the history of
American race relations law, Race Law provides a unique introductory
learning opportunity for law students, graduate students, and upper-division
college students.
CQ Press
________________________________________________________________________
WATERGATE AND THE RESIGNATION OF RICHARD NIXON: IMPACT OF A CONSTITUTIONAL
CRISIS, by Harry P. Jeffrey and Thomas Maxwell-Long (editors). Washington
DC: CQ Press, August 2004. 385pp.
$100. Hardcover. ISBN: 1-56802-910-1.
Thirty years have passed since President Nixon’s resignation, yet, the impact of the “Watergate” scandal continues to affect the institutional power of the American chief executive. Through documents and analytical essays, this timely collection places the Watergate crisis in perspective, providing a cogent and balanced analysis of the development and consequences of an event that has overshadowed Nixon’s legacy and permanently altered the country’s perceptions of politics. Watergate threatened the very constitutional order of the nation, and continues to this day to affect the public’s attitudes about the presidency, America’s political culture, the mass media’s coverage of politics, the separation of powers, and the investigation of high-level misconduct in the federal government.
Twelve topical essays written by presidential scholars cover these themes and examine the impact of the crisis over time. Primary source materials, including transcripts from oral interviews, Nixon’s speeches, letters, the infamous Watergate tapes, excerpts from testimony and hearings in Congress, the proposed articles of impeachment, and more are all put in context with explanatory headnotes.
________________________________________________________________________
100 AMERICANS MAKING CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY: A BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY, edited
by Melvin I. Urofsky. Washington
DC: CQ Press, April 2004. 418pp. $100.
Print Cloth. ISBN: 1-56802-799-0.
[*310]
100 Americans Making Constitutional History: A Biographical History presents 100 profiles of the key people behind some of the most important U.S. Supreme Court cases. Edited by Melvin I. Urofsky, a respected constitutional historian, each 2,000-word profile delves into the social and political context behind landmark Court decisions. For example, while a case like Brown v. Board of Education is about an important idea—the equal protection of the law—at its heart it is the story of a little girl, Linda Brown, who wanted to go to a decent school near her home. The outcome is accessible and objective “stories” about the individuals—heroes and scoundrels—who fought their way to constitutional history.
100 Americans Making Constitutional History helps students understand the human side of the Supreme Court’s decisions from the early republic to the present. Each biographical profile, written by a constitutional scholar or legal analyst, includes a discussion about the Court decision and how the specific legal issues evolved into great constitutional questions and drama. It puts a face and history to major cases by reminding the reader that there are people behind them, seeking vindication of their individual liberties and civil rights.
Each profile includes a brief bibliography for further research. Excellent for undergraduate students studying American government, American history, Constitutional Law and journalism.
NO BOND BUT THE LAW: PUNISHMENT, RACE, AND GENDER IN JAMAICAN STATE FORMATION, 1780-1870, by Diana Paton. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004. 312pp. Cloth - $84.95 Paperback - $23.95. ISBN: 0-8223-3401-1 (Cloth), 0-8223-3398-8 (Paperback).
Investigating the cultural, social, and political history of
punishment during ninety years surrounding the 1838 abolition of slavery in
Jamaica, Diana Paton challenges standard historiographies of slavery and
discipline. The abolition of slavery in Jamaica, as elsewhere, entailed the
termination of slaveholders’ legal right to use violence—which they defined as “punishment”—against
those they held as slaves. Paton argues that, while slave emancipation involved
major changes in the organization and representation of punishment, there was
no straightforward transition from corporal punishment to the prison or from
privately-inflicted to state-controlled punishment. Contesting the dichotomous
understanding of pre-modern and modern modes of power that currently dominates
the historiography of punishment, she offers critical readings of influential
theories of power and resistance, including those of Michel Foucault, Pierre
Bourdieu, and Ranajit Guha.
No Bond But the Law reveals the longstanding and intimate relationship
between state formation and private punishment. The construction of a dense, [*311]
state-organized system of prisons began not with emancipation but at the peak
of slave-based wealth in Jamaica, in the 1780s. Jamaica provided the
paradigmatic case for British observers imagining and evaluating the
emancipation process. Paton’s analysis moves between imperial processes on the
one hand and Jamaican specificities on the other, within a framework comparing
developments regarding punishment in Jamaica with those in other countries and
territories. Emphasizing the gendered nature of penal policy and practice
throughout the emancipation period, she is attentive to the ways in which the
actions of ordinary Jamaicans and, in particular, of women prisoners, shaped
state decisions.
AND JUSTICE FOR ALL? : THE CLAIMS OF HUMAN
RIGHTS (VOLUME 103, NUMBERS 2 AND 3), by Ian Balfour and Eduardo Cadava
(eds). Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004. 440pp.
$20.00 (paperback). ISBN:
0-8223-6564-2.
Questions of human rights are among the most pressing and intractable matters at this historical moment. If claims to human rights are by definition universal, the formulation, legislation, and implementation of them tend to be significantly less than universal. And Justice for All? examines the idea and the reality of human rights and their attendant discourses. The essays gathered here—from academics and activists working in law, philosophy, political theory, literature, medicine, and NGOs—collectively interrogate these universal claims to human rights and the political justice that may or may not follow from them.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE:
INTRODUCTORY CASES AND MATERIALS (SIXTH EDITION), by Jerome H. Skolnick,
Malcolm M. Feeley and Candace McCoy. New
York: Foundation Press, 2004. 722pp. $91.25
(hardcover). ISBN: 1-587-78526-9.
Introduces the concept of crime and addresses key issues
such as how we measure criminality, its variety, and the justifications we
employ for punishing it. The book also discusses processing institutions:
police, prosecutor, defense attorney, courts, sentencing and corrections. The book
defines the relationships among these institutions and illustrates the
relationships with examples.
Materials in the book include cases and statutes, the writings and commentary
of legal scholars, articles by social scientists and humanists, newspaper
editorials and reports by criminal justice practitioners.
THE OHIO STATE CONSTITUTION: A REFERENCE GUIDE, by Steven H. Steinglass and Gino J. Scarselli. Wesport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Company, 2004. 436pp. $104.95 (hardcover). ISBN: 0-313-26765-0.
In 2003 Ohio celebrated its bicentennial, but most of the state’s residents are [*312] unaware of the rich history and text of the state’s constitution. From its precursor, the Northwest Ordinance, through three successful constitutional conventions and more than 200 proposed amendments; the Ohio Constitution is an evolving document. This work, current through the November 2004 election, is a needed resource for anyone interested in the history or text of the Ohio Constitution, or state Constitutions in general.
This work provides an introductory essay outlining the history of the Ohio State Constitution as well as a section-by-section commentary on the Constitution. Tables listing changes to the Constitution as well a complete list of all proposed amendments to the Constitution from 1851 to the present are included. Foreword by current Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer.
PROCEDURAL DUE PROCESS: A REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTUTION, by Rhonda Wasserman. Wesport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. 400pp. $124.95 (hardcover). ISBN: 0-313-31353-9.
This book gathers, synthesizes and analyzes case law in a variety of substantive contexts, including public employment, prison administration, and government benefits. It places current case law into historical context, serving as a reference guide for students, practitioners, judges and scholars interested in procedural due process.
The author addresses the central requirements of notice and the opportunity to be heard as well as the “day in court” ideal. It also examines the protection due process affords against litigation in a distant forum with which the defendant has no connection.
LAWS, CUSTOMS AND RIGHTS: CHARLES HATFIELD AND HIS FAMILY, A LOUISIANA HISTORY, by Evelyn L. Wilson. Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 2004. 226pp. $27.50 (paper). ISBN: 1-58549-942-0.
Laws, Customs and Rights tells a story of Charles Hatfield, Jr., his family, and the segregation laws he sought to change. The story begins with Hatfield’s maternal great-grandfather, George Douse, a free mulatto, who settled in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, in the early 1820s. It includes Thomas and Mary Purnell, one white and one black, who raised children and grew old together, though they could not marry because of their race. Their daughter, Ann Maria Purnell, married George Douse’s son, Richard Douse, a Civil War veteran and a member of Louisiana’s 2nd regiment, Native Guards, a U.S. Army unit formed of black soldiers without Presidential approval. Richard and Ann’s grandchild, Charles Hatfield, Jr., sued Louisiana’s only state-supported law school in 1946 to force it to desegregate. In response to Hatfield’s suit, the state of Louisiana established a law school at Southern University, the state’s separate school for its black citizens. The book documents these events using minutes of meetings and related correspondence. It provides histories of the black and white state universities and compares their law schools. The book tracks Hatfield’s genealogy, but also examines the [*313] Louisiana in which the Purnells, Douses, and Hatfields lived, discussing those events most relevant to their lives. Using original and secondary sources, it tells a history of how slavery and segregation shaped the choices available to and selected by family members, and traces the family’s history against the background of Louisiana’s history from 1817 to 2002. Pictures of Hatfields and Douses; and quotes from original sources, including acts of emancipation, correspondence, army enrollment and discharge papers, and court documents enhance this well documented work.
CCB: THE LIFE AND CENTURY OF CHARLES C. BURLINGHAM: NEW YORK’S FIRST CITIZEN 1858-1959, by George Martin. New York: Hill and Wang, 2005. 704pp. $35.00 (hardcover). ISBN: 0-8090-7317-X.
Though he held no elected or appointed office, the New York
City lawyer Charles C. Burlingham had great influence with those who did, and
used it in unusual ways. George Martin’s surprising biography shows how one
citizen, working quietly behind the scenes, became a power broker who
transformed his country’s civic life.
Growing up after the Civil War, CCB—as everyone called him—was enthralled by
America’s dynamism of his city but shocked by the social costs of
modernization, and he deplored the endemic corruption of city politics;
eventually he let his law practice take a backseat to civil reform work. His
second career in “meddling,” as he called it, helped to put great judges on the
bench (among them Benjamin Cardozo) and climaxed when he arranged the Fusion
reform ticket on which Fiorello La Guardia swept to victory in 1933. Nor does
Martin neglect Burlingham’s private life--his eccentric wife, tragically
afflicted son, and daughter-in-law Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham, who took CCB’s
grandchildren off to Vienna to be analyzed, as she was, by Sigmund and Anna
Freud.
This adroit, engaging account of a high-spirited, good-hearted, talented man,
chronicling his witty, effective commitment to social betterment, vividly
documents a century of change in the ways Americans lived, their cities were
governed, and their nation fought wars.
AMERICA’S UNPATRIOTIC ACTS: THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S VIOLATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND CIVIL RIGHTS, by Walter M. Brasch. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2005. 250pp. $24.95 (paperback). ISBN: 0-8204-7608-0.
Within six weeks of 9/11, in a nation gripped by fear and hatred, Congress overwhelmingly approved the USA PATRIOT Act, drafted in secret by the Department of Justice, and forced upon the Congress by the House and Senate leadership. There was almost no debate, and few in Congress were given more than a few hours to read the 342-page [*314] document; most didn’t read any of it. The Act gave federal law enforcement the tools it wanted to track down and prosecute terrorists. However, there sections which threaten Americans’ Constitutional rights and civil liberties while doing little to protect the safety of the nation. Equally important, the Act has been used against American citizens who have no connection with any act of terrorism. In America’s Unpatriotic Acts, award-winning journalist and university professor Walter Brasch looks not just at the effects of the PATRIOT ACT upon the nation, but also at innumerable civil rights violations conducted in the United States, and by the United States in foreign countries during three years following 9/11.
THE TAXING POWER: A REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, by Erik M. Jensen. Wesport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2005. $99.95 (hardcover). ISBN: 0-313-31229-X.
The U.S. Constitution contains several limitations on the national taxing power. These limitations are almost always ignored due to the assumption that Congress is unconstrained in imposing taxes.The Taxing Power proves that assumption faulty by illustrating the importance of such limitations as the uniformity rule, the direct-tax apportionment rule, and the Export Clause. By looking at the historical origins of these limitations, Jensen argues that they are essential parts of the Constitution and should be taken seriously, as the founders intended.
This full-scale treatment of the subject is a timely reminder that the national taxing power is not absolute. In the last decade the Supreme Court has begun to see the Export Clause as an important factor in taxation. This has opened the door for other limitations to be considered, making this work of utmost importance in the study of taxation.
DOUBLE JEOPARDY: A REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, by David S. Rudstein. Wesport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004. 288pp. $99.95 (hardcover). ISBN: 0-313-31180-3.
This volume traces the history of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution. It shows that the constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy has its roots in ancient Jewish and early Greek and Roman law. After recapping the history of the clause the Supreme Court’s current interpretation of the clause is explained.
This book describes the circumstances in which the premature termination of an individual’s trial bars a subsequent trail for the same offense. It also examines when the Clause prohibits the government from imposing multiple punishments for the same offense. The final chapter includes a discussion of bibliographical sources.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH: A REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, by Keith Werhan. Wesport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004. 196pp. $89.95 (hardcover). ISBN: 0-313-31997-9. [*315]
Although freedom of speech is regarded as a bedrock principle of American constitutionalism, the Supreme Court did not recognize it as a fundamental right worthy of strong constitutional protection until the middle of the 20th century. This work focuses on the core doctrines that constitute free speech jurisprudence. It provides a historical evolution of the doctrine and examines the key Supreme Court decisions affecting it.
This volume gives readers an analytical framework for understanding free speech jurisprudence. It takes a fresh approach to free speech methodology by breaking it into two accessible parts: “substantive doctrines” and “procedural doctrines.” This work includes informative background chapters on the history and theory of free expression. It also looks at the Supreme Court’s struggle with subversive advocacy and its importance in protecting free speech.
THE SUPREMACY CLAUSE: A REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, by Christopher R. Drahozal. Wesport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2004. 232pp. $92.95 (hardcover). ISBN: 0-313-31447-0.
This book combines a detailed examination of the history of the Supremacy Clause with a comprehensive consideration of all aspects of Supremacy Clause Doctrine. It explores how the Supremacy Clause makes federal law the “supreme Law of the Land,” so that federal law overrides conflicting state law. This work also looks at how the Supreme Court frequently requires not supremacy but equality when applying the Supremacy Clause by invalidating state laws that discriminate against the federal government.
This volume gives a detailed history of the Supremacy Clause by tracing the origins of federal supremacy from colonial days. It gives particular attention to the evolution of the Supremacy Clause in the Constitutional Convention and discussions of the Clause during the ratification debates. Foundational decisions of the Supreme Court interpreting the Clause are discussed as well as the role of the Clause during critical confrontations between states and federal government. This work also considers in detail the doctrinal role of the Supremacy Clause today by discussing contemporary topics and recent controversies surrounding them.
THE RELIGION GUARANTEES: A REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, by Peter K. Rofes. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2005. 230pp. $104.95. ISBN: 0-313-31371-7.
As we enter the 21st century, the United States’ highest court remains deeply divided over the fundamental issues concerning the Constitutional law of religious freedom. Because of this chasm, the direction the law will take over the next generation remains uncertain. This book empowers the reader to grasp the issues behind the contemporary Constitutional controversy and delves into such areas as prayer in school, religious displays on public property, and educational choice programs involving religious schools. [*316]
This reader-friendly overview effectively discusses the burgeoning Constitutional law of American religious liberty in a comprehensive yet concise manner. Rofes details how this issue made its way into the Bill of Rights and explores its two protections—the anti-establishment and free exercise guarantees. The book identifies and examines the range of thorny issues implicated by the anti-establishment protection such as prayer in public schools, religious displays on public property, and financial assistance to religious institutions. It also looks at the variety of contexts in which free exercise rears its head, including: compulsory education, unemployment compensation, and the military. The work concludes with a bibliographic chapter for readers to pursue particular issues in greater depth.
LESSONS FROM NAFTA: FOR LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, by Daniel Lederman, William F. Maloney and Luis Serven. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005. 368pp. $29.95 (paperback). $65.00 (hardcover). ISBN: 0804752400 (paper). 0804752397 (cloth).
Analyzing the experience of Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the authors draw lessons for other countries considering free trade agreements with the United States. The authors conclude that NAFTA raised external trade and foreign investment inflows and had a modest effect on Mexico’s average income per person. It is likely that NAFTA also helped achieve a modest reduction in poverty and an improvement in job quality. However, major obstacles remain to Mexico’s long term development—NAFTA is not enough. The main lesson for other countries is that free trade agreements offer opportunities to accelerate economic growth, but do not guarantee it.
PROFANITY, OBSCENITY & THE MEDIA: THE
LANGUAGE OF JOURNALISM (VOLUME TWO), by Melvin J. Lasky. New Brunswick,
NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2005. 339pp. $44.95 (hardcover). ISBN: 0-7658-0220-1.
This is the second volume of Melvin
Lasky’s The Language of Journalism, praised as a “brilliant” and “original”
study in communications and contemporary language, and as “a joy to read.” It
broke ground in focusing on the comparative styles and prejudices of mainstream
American and British newspapers, and in its trenchant analysis of their
systematic debasement in the face of obligatory platitudes and compulsory
euphemisms.
Lasky’s subtle and richly detailed text documents the possibly terminal crisis
affecting honest, thoughtful, and independent journalism in the Western world.
It extends the research in his first volume, and deepens the interpretation. It
also adds the personal touch of both wit and anecdote expressed by an
experienced international journalist and historian. The central chapters on the
[*317] “F-word” carry the public emergence of the infamous “expletive deleted”
beyond the conventional lexicographer’s approach. Lasky’s pages on the use of
formerly forbidden language is a triumph of sinuous semantics. Here, in
incisive analysis, is the tortuous struggle of a once Puritanized literary
culture writhing to break free of censorship and self-censorship. Lasky
critically evaluates the historic effort of the avant-garde of “dirty realism”
to find a path towards what he calls “a usable profanity.” In the meantime,
newspaper style books become comic texts, as asterisks take over from square
brackets and millions of readers purse their lips and indulge in “participatory
obscenity.” In dealing fully with the phenomenon of profanity, the new book
adds another dimension to Lasky’s thesis on mass culture’s trivialization of
real social and political phenomena. It underscores as well our society’s embrace
of banality, in standardizing politically correct jargon, slang, patois,
pidgin, and various other “grunts and growls.”
CRIME SCIENCE: NEW APPROACHES TO PREVENTING
AND DETECTING CRIME, by Melissa J. Smith and Nick Tilley (eds). Devon,
UK and Portland, Oregon: Willan Publishing, 2005. 248pp. £18.99 / $32.50 (paperback). £40.00 / $59.95 (hardback).
ISBN: 1-84392-089-1
(paperback), 1-84392-090-5 (hardback).
Crime
science is a multi-disciplinary new discipline that has the aim of
understanding better how to prevent and detect crime, drawing on criminology,
economics, psychology, mathematics, geography, architecture and other fields to
examine crime patterns and to develop solutions to these problems. It provides
an integrated approach to crime which its proponents believe will improve
detection of crime, reduce the impact of crime and in due course result in less
crime in society.
This book
provides an introduction to crime science, setting out its essentials. It
provides a major statement of the nature and aspirations of crime science, and
presents a series of case studies providing examples, in different settings, of
the approach in action, ranging from preventing crime within correctional
institutions to the use of techniques such as DNA fast tracking for burglary.
It is structured so as to cover the fundamentals of crime science, with
sections on methodology, prevention and detection.
THE NEW PUNITIVENESS: TRENDS, THEORIES,
PERSPECTIVES, by John Pratt, David Brown, Mark Brown, Simon Hallsworth and
Wayne Morrison eds). Devon, UK and Portland, Oregon: Willan Publishing,
2005. 336pp. £19.50 / $32.50 (paperback).
£45.00 / $64.95 (hardback).
ISBN: 184392109X (paperback), 1843921103
(hardback).
Throughout much of the western world more and more people are being sent to prison, one of a number of changes inspired by a ‘new punitiveness’ in penal and political affairs. This book seeks to understand these developments, bringing together leading authorities in the field to provide a wide ranging analysis of [*318] new penal trends, compare the development of differing patterns of punishment across different types of societies, and to provide a range of theoretical analyses and commentaries to help understand their significance.
As well as increases in imprisonment this book is also concerned to address a number of other aspects of ‘the new punitiveness’: firstly, the return of a number of forms of punishment previously thought extinct or inappropriate, such as the return of shaming punishments and chain gangs (in parts of the USA); and secondly, the increasing public involvement in penal affairs and penal development, for example in relation to length of sentences and the California Three Strikes Law, and a growing accreditation of the rights of victims.