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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.

EDUCATIONAL ADEQUACY AND THE COURTS, by Elaine M. Walker. Ann Arbor: ABC-CLIO Publishing Company, 2005. 225pp. $45.00 (hardcover). ISBN: 1-85109-535-7.

The first work of its kind to present a comprehensive survey of landmark court decisions on educational adequacy and equity claims and their impact on public school reform.

Providing an adequate level of education in public schools has been a continuous challenge. Judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government have collectively and individually sought to address the problems of educational inadequacies. How have courts redressed inequities in their states’ educational systems? Are there alternative remedies to those developed in response to court decisions?

In EDUCATIONAL ADEQUACY AND THE COURTS: A REFERENCE HANDBOOK, education researcher Elaine Walker presents an in depth analysis of pivotal court cases and their impact on educational adequacy and reform, illuminating the inherent challenges of redressing long-standing problems associated with state funding mechanisms for K–12 education.

In addition to an eye opening, state-by-state discussion of court rulings and their [*622] effect on education, Walker covers such topics as the moral imperative for educational reform, the failure and success of federal and state reform efforts, and the historical importance of school finance litigation in the reform of school systems in high poverty areas. The work also highlights alternative ways in which improvement can be approached and sheds light on the overall complexities of setting educational policy.

PERSONALITY-GUIDED FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY, by Robert J. Craig. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2004. 359pp. $59.95 (hardcover). ISBN: 1-59147-151-6.

In PERSONALITY-GUIDED FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY, Robert J. Craig discusses the hot area of forensic psychology -- the crossroads of law and psychology -- and illustrates how personality-guided assessment is a useful tool in the multiple arenas in which forensic psychologists are active: child custody evaluation, fitness for duty evaluations, personal injury, domestic violence, and many others.

The volume begins with an overview of forensic psychology and the personality theories most relevant to forensic psychology. Chapters cover assessments ranging from relatively normal evaluations (police applicants and officers, custody and personal injury) to those in which severe pathology may come into play (domestic violence and homicide). The book offers a wealth of data on personality-test scores of chronic pain patients, patients who litigate, those who commit sexual or other physical abuse or murder, and others. Psychologists who serve as expert witnesses of friends of the court in legal proceedings, those choosing candidates for intervention programs, and students of forensic psychology will find this book indispensable.

Volumes in the Personality-Guided Psychology series demonstrate the utility and relevance of assessing personality variables in an array of matters of interest to psychologists. Each book illustrates how a clinical syndrome or behavior can be understood in the context of the patient’s unique pattern of overall trait dynamics.

CHILDREN, MEDICINE AND THE LAW, by Michael Freeman (Series: The International Library of Medicine, Ethics and Law). Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2005. 736pp. $300 (hardback). ISBN: 1 84014 754 7.

Selected for inclusion in this volume are the most significant and influential articles analyzing the key issues surrounding children, medicine and the law today. Issues examined include: the implications of assisted reproduction for children, neonatal intensive care, health care, HIV testing of new-born children, choosing sexual orientation and adolescents and life-and-death decisions. [*623]

CUSTOMARY INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW (VOLUME 1: RULES), by Jean-Marie Henckaerts and Louise Doswald-Beck. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 676pp. $27.99 (paperback). ISBN: 0-521-00528-0.

Customary International Humanitarian Law, Volume I: Rules is a comprehensive analysis of the customary rules of international humanitarian law applicable in international and non-international armed conflicts. In the absence of ratifications of important treaties in this area, this is clearly a publication of major importance, carried out at the express request of the international community. In so doing, this study identifies the common core of international humanitarian law binding on all parties to all armed conflicts.

THE LAW-MAKING PROCESS (6^th ed), by Michael Zander. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 554pp. $21.99 (paperback). ISBN: 0-521-60989-5.

As a critical analysis of the law-making process, this book has no equal. For more than two decades it has filled a gap in the requirements of law students and others taking introductory courses on the legal system. It deals with every aspect of the law-making process: the preparation of legislation; its passage through Parliament; statutory interpretation; binding precedent; how precedent works; law reporting; the nature of the judicial role; European Union law; and the process of law reform. It presents a large number of original texts from a variety of sources - cases, official reports, articles, books, speeches and empirical research studies - laced with the author’s informed commentary and reflections on the subject. This book is a mine of information dealing with both the broad sweep of the subject and with all its detailed ramifications.

PRINCIPLES OF THE INSTITUTION LAW OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS (2^nd ed), by C. F. Amerasinghe. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 572pp. $29.00 (paperback). ISBN: 0-521-54557-9.

The second edition of C. F. Amerasinghe’s successful book, which covers the institutional aspects of the law of international organizations, has been revised to include, among other things, a new chapter on judicial organs of international organizations, as well as a considerably developed chapter on dispute settlement. There is a rigorous analysis of all the material alongside a functional examination of the law. A brief history of international organizations is followed by chapters on, amongst others, interpretation, membership and representation, international and national personality, judicial organs, the doctrine of ultra vires, liability of members to third parties, employment relations, dissolution and succession, and amendment. Important principles are extracted and discussed, and the practice of different organizations examined. [*624]

ELECTORAL ENGINEERING: VOTING RULES AND POLITICAL BEHAVIOR, by Pippa Norris. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 390pp. $25.99 (paperback). ISBN: 0-521-53671-5.

From Kosovo to Kabul, the last decade witnessed growing interest in ?electoral engineering?. Reformers have sought to achieve either greater government accountability through majoritarian arrangements or wider parliamentary diversity through proportional formula. Underlying the normative debates are important claims about the impact and consequences of electoral reform for political representation and voting behavior. The study compares and evaluates two broad schools of thought, each offering contracting expectations. One popular approach claims that formal rules define electoral incentives facing parties, politicians and citizens. By changing these rules, rational choice institutionalism claims that we have the capacity to shape political behavior. Alternative cultural modernization theories differ in their emphasis on the primary motors driving human behavior, their expectations about the pace of change, and also their assumptions about the ability of formal institutional rules to alter, rather than adapt to, deeply embedded and habitual social norms and patterns of human behavior.

WORK LAW IN AMERICAN SOCIETY, by Kenneth M. Casebeer and Gary Minda. Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2005. 1272pp. $100.00, Student Price $80.00 (Casebound). ISBN: 0-89089-704-2.

Written in the traditions of legal realism, law and society, and materials analysis, WORK LAW IN AMERICAN SOCIETY offers law students a paradigm-shifting introduction to the field of labor and employment law. This casebook is different from others of the genre in that it focuses on both individual and collective law and legal power in our society. Organized around the legal contests facing people who work within a democratically established market economy, this book deals with contemporary conflicts within finance-driven and internationalized divisions of social labor in increasingly multi-cultural workforces. It is meant to facilitate student speculation on the many relationships of legal practices within, and to, democracy.

CORPORATE TAXATION THROUGH THE LENS OF MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS: INCLUDING CROSS-BORDER TRANSACTIONS, by Samuel C. Thompson, Jr. Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2005. 920pp. $110.00, Student Price $80.00 (hardback). ISBN 0-89089-340-3.

This book approaches the subject of Corporate Taxation through the prism of the Federal income tax treatment of taxable and tax-free mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Although the book discusses virtually every section of subchapter C of the Internal Revenue Code, which governs the tax treatment of corporations, the emphasis is placed on those provisions of subchapter C that have the most impact in M&A transactions. The book is structured for [*625] use both by students who have not previously been exposed to Corporate Tax and by those who have.

The book focuses principally on domestic M&A; however, because of the growing importance of cross-border M&A, the Federal income tax consequences of these transactions are also briefly examined. The book is divided into four parts. Part I contains an introduction to business tax principles, to basic corporate tax principles, and to the Federal income tax treatment of taxable and tax-free M&A. Part II focuses on taxable stock and asset acquisitions; Part III focuses on tax-free reorganizations; and Part IV focuses on special topics, including acquisitions involving partnerships and S corporations, bankruptcy issues in M&A, and policy issues.

SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY OR THE RULE OF LAW: THE NEW FEDERALISM’S CHOICE, by Donald L. Doernberg. Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2005. 260pp. $35.00 (paper). ISBN: 1-59460-012-0.

This book explores the inherent conflict between the philosophical concept of the rule of law on one hand and sovereign immunity as it exists in the United States today on the other. The volume begins by canvassing the development of sovereignty as a concept from Bodin in the sixteenth century through the Framers of the United States Constitution in the late eighteenth century. The philosophy of John Locke receives special emphasis because the Framers were so intellectually indebted to his then-revolutionary view of sovereignty as an attribute of the people, not the government and of government not as the people’s master, but as their trustee bound to perform on their behalf. An examination of sovereign immunity in the United States follows, focusing on the federalism relationship between the United States and the individual states. The Supreme Court’s recent development of federalism, referred to by many as the New Federalism, provides rich material with which to examine sovereign immunity and its interaction with federalism principles.

The book then explores the philosophy of the rule of law, a major component of which is the idea that government is itself limited by the law and must stay within law’s bounds to retain its legitimacy. Particularly in a society like that of the United States, where a formal constitution creates and defines the government, its powers and its limitations, the clash between sovereign immunity and the rule of law is unavoidable. The Constitution has no function other than to define, empower, and limit the government. When the courts invoke sovereign immunity to shield government or its agents from the consequences of violation of constitutional norms, the rule of law and the basic fabric of society suffer.

STRUCTURES OF JUDICIAL DECISION MAKING FROM LEGAL FORMALISM TO CRITICAL THEORY (2^nd ed), by Roy L. Brooks. Durham: Carolina Academic Press, 2005. 380pp. $50.00 (hardcover). ISBN: 1-59460-123-2. [*626]

This is a general book on jurisprudence designed for both the novice and more experienced student, which makes it suitable for first-year law students. It is the first book to distinguish and connect traditional theories of judicial decision-making (e.g., legal formalism, textualism, legal realism, and legal process) with “critical process” (which is critical theory transformed from a theory of legal criticism into a theory of judicial decision-making). Brooks breaks new ground on several other fronts as well — he employs an innovative framework that divides judicial decision-making models into the “logical method” and the “policy method;” offers a more nuanced conceptualization of judicial policy-formulation in which judges are seen as not only making policy, but also (and more typically) as discovering and vindicating policy; redefines “ policy-making” in a manner that is different from our traditional understanding of the term; and synthesizes critical process into three judicial models: symmetrical, asymmetrical, and hybrid. The book is written in two parts. Part 1 (Traditional Process) discusses five major traditional judicial models, each reflective of either the logical method or the policy method. Part 1 ends with a synthesis of the traditional models (dividing them into three categories), which judges who have used the book find to be most useful. Part 2 (Critical Process) begins with a discussion of critical theory’s central theme and operating elements and then transforms these features into a theory of outsider-oriented judicial decision making, something judges can actually use in deciding cases. Critical theory is thus transformed into “critical process.”

GATEKEEPERS TO THE FRANCHISE: SHAPING ELECTION ADMINISTRATION IN NEW YORK, by Ronald Hayduk. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2005. 292pp. $35.00 (cloth). ISBN: 0-87580-341-5.

The history of democracy in America is the history of the extension of voting privileges from white male property-owners to blacks, to women, and to citizens over eighteen years of age. Yet, the number of United States citizens who actually vote is distressingly low in comparison with voter turnout in other democratic nations. Barely half of the eligible electorate vote in presidential elections and even fewer cast ballots in state and local elections. Poor, minority, and urban communities report the lowest turnout rates, calling into question the reality of American democracy.

Who or what is to blame? Among the many suspects, from stealthy politicians to indifferent citizens, the system of election administration often goes unrecognized. In fact, public officials charged with registering voters and operating the polls on election day literally act as the “gatekeepers to the franchise.” By blocking or facilitating a citizen’s ability to vote, they shape democratic participation.

In this timely study, political scientist Ronald Hayduk assesses the impact that electoral rules, registration procedures, and on-the-ground operations of New York’s state and city election boards have had upon voters’ participation and [*627] election outcomes over the past 130 years. This in-depth case study documents the ways in which certain practices not only disenfranchise eligible individuals but disproportionately affect low-income and minority groups. It also provides alarming evidence that the debacle in Florida during the 2000 presidential election was not unique. Partisanship and the corruption it fosters have been built into the American system of election administration.

At the same time, however, Hayduk argues that expansive election practices and efficient administration do encourage registration and voting. Bringing his research up to the 2004 presidential election, he evaluates the reforms instituted by the Help America Vote Act. In the conclusion, he offers a candid discussion of other proposed measures for ensuring that all citizens can exercise their right to vote.

GETTING EVEN: FORGIVENESS AND ITS LIMITS, by Jeffrie G. Murphy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. 152pp. $14.95 (paperback). ISBN: 0195178556.

We have all been victims of wrongdoing. Forgiving that wrongdoing is one of the staples of current pop psychology dogma; it is seen as a universal prescription for moral and mental health in the self-help and recovery section of bookstores. At the same time, personal vindictiveness as a rule is seen as irrational and immoral. In many ways, our thinking on these issues is deeply inconsistent; we value forgiveness yet at the same time now use victim-impact statements to argue for harsher penalties for criminals. Do we have a right to hate others for what they have done to us?

The distinguished philosopher and law professor Jeffrie Murphy is a skeptic when it comes to our views on both emotions. In this short and accessible book, he proposes that vindictive emotions (anger, resentment, and the desire for revenge) actually deserve a more legitimate place in our emotional, social, and legal lives than we currently recognize, while forgiveness deserves to be more selectively granted. Murphy grounds his views on careful analysis of the nature of forgiveness, a subtle understanding of the psychology of anger and resentment, and a fine appreciation of the ethical issues of self-respect and self-defense. He also uses accessible examples from law, literature, and religion to make his points. Providing a nuanced approach to a proper understanding of the place of our strongest emotions in moral, political, and personal life, and using lucid, easily understood prose, this volume is a classic example of philosophical thinking applied to a thorny, everyday problem.

THE CRIMINOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF PENAL POLICY: ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF ROGER HOOD, edited by Lucia Zedner and Andrew Ashworth. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. 570pp. $99.00 (hardcover). ISBN: 0-19-926509-7.

How have the findings of academic criminologists affected the development of public policy? This is the central question addressed by this collection [*628] of essays, which explore the complex relationship between research and policy making.

A PRIMER ON AMERICAN COURTS, by William S. Miller. Pearson Longman, 2005. 176pp. $35.00 (paperback). ISBN: 0-321-10615-6.

This brief, accessible, and inexpensive supplement on American courts and their functions provides undergraduate, or first-year law students, with an understanding of the key substantive and procedural concepts that they need to know to study the law or the judicial process.

Recognizing that there are many substantive and procedural concepts about American courts that students must first grasp in order to study the law or the judicial process, this brief text answers important questions about justiciability, standing, jurisdiction, and judicial power. With a stronger historical context, this text is a perfect complement to a text on Constitutional Law, Judicial Process, or a legal casebook, and will help students master the legal vocabulary with which they are confronted.

LIMITS ON STATES: A REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION, by James M. McGoldrick, Jr. Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 2005. 150pp. $99.95. ISBN: 0-313-31233-8.

Article 1, Section 10 contains the most significant limits on state power found in the main text of the U.S. Constitution. Chief Justice John Marshall, perhaps the most important Justice in U.S. history, used this provision a number of times in a number of significant decisions to limit state power. These decisions effectively enhanced the power of our new federalist form of government. This book delves into the modern issues pertaining to state limitations by tracing its history and looking at today’s most important factors.

This work makes a valuable contribution to the understanding of the U.S. Constitution by detailing the most significant limits on state power. The many provisions studied in the book provide insights into the various aspects of constitutional interpretation.

THE FULL FAITH AND CREDIT CLAUSE: A REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, by William L. Reynolds and William M. Richman. Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 2005. 192pp. $129.95. ISBN: 0-313-31541-8.

This work examines all the aspects of the Full Faith and Credit Clause and its importance in the development of United States law. It begins with the birth of the clause and the history underlying its adoption. This includes discussions held at the Constitutional Convention and the early judicial interpretations of the [*629] clause. The book looks separately at the individual components that embody the clause--those that deal with records, public acts, and judicial proceedings. The book also zeroes in on the relationship between the clause and the issues of family law. It covers marriage, divorce, support, and child custody, all issues that have demanded serious attention in recent years.

CONSTITUTIONAL DEBATE IN ACTION: CIVIL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES (2^ND EDITION), by H. L. Pohlman. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2004. 320pp. Paper. $26.96. ISBN: 074253667X. Cloth. $70.00. ISBN: 0-7425-3666-1.

CONSTITUTIONAL DEBATE IN ACTION: GOVERNMENTAL POWERS (2^ND EDITION), by H. L. Pohlman. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. 336pp Paper. $26.95. ISBN: 0-7425-3593-2. Cloth. $70.00. ISBN: 0-7425-3592-4.

CONSTITUTIONAL DEBATE IN ACTION: CRIMINAL JUSTICE (2^ND EDITION), by H. L. Pohlman. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. 200pp. Paper. $26.96. ISBN: 0742537951. Cloth. $70.00. ISBN: 0742537943.

Taking into account the political and intellectual forces that shape Supreme Court decisions, Constitutional Debate in Action examines how and why the United States Constitution continues to grow and adapt to human wants, passions, and values. Not your traditional constitutional-law textbook, this three volume set views the Constitution as an institutionalized form of debate by which people press their political demands and arguments upon the Supreme Court. Each volume provides in depth and updated examinations of key landmark decisions. Civil Rights and Liberties covers: Racial Discrimination, Affirmative Action, Abortion, Hate Speech, and Peyote Use and Religious Freedom, and, new to the Second Edition, a completely new chapter on Campaign Finance Regulation and Freedom of Speech. Visit our website for sample chapters!

MURDER UNPUNISHED, by Thorton W. Price III. Tuscan: The University of Arizona Press, 2005. 248pp. $17.95 (paperback). ISBN: 0-8165-2463-7.

In November of 1977, Terry Lee Farmer, a white inmate at Arizona State Prison in Florence, walked up to black prisoner Waymond Small in front of sixty witnesses and stabbed him in the heart with a shank. Small had agreed to testify before the state legislature about gang violence inside Arizona State Prison and was murdered the day before his scheduled appearance. This murder proved the catalyst for an all-out war between the State of Arizona and the Aryan Brotherhood. Through five trials, Farmer claimed self-defense and the jurors acquitted all ten of his co-conspirators.

Thornton Price, one of the defense attorneys, now tells how Farmer and [*630] Small became cannon fodder in this war to reclaim Arizona’s prisons from rival gangs. These gangs—the Aryan Brotherhood, the Mau Maus, and the Mexican Mafia—were suspected of committing more than a dozen murders over the previous two years, motivating politicians to crack down after the violence could no longer be ignored or contained. To reconstruct the case, Price reviewed 16,000 pages of court records and conducted interviews with key participants to piece together an insider’s account of the crime and the politics behind its investigation. Prison murders should be easy to solve, but investigators quickly learned that the convicts’ code of silence makes these cases often impossible to win in court.

Price focuses on the special problems posed by prison crime by getting inside the skins of men like murderer Terry “Crazy” Farmer and William “Red Dog” Howard, one of the Florence Eleven and a founder of the Aryan Brotherhood. He also presents the perspectives of state investigators and reveals how they calculated to pit black witnesses against white killers until one black would break the code of silence and provoke feuding within the Brotherhood.

MURDER UNPUNISHED tells how society’s most outrageous criminals ran the prison through gang violence as outside the walls Arizona struggled to outgrow its Wild West past. Like few other books, it reveals how prisons incubate predatory criminals and gangs, and it exposes the unique difficulties of prosecuting prison crimes. It is a gripping account that cuts to the heart of our penal system and a cautionary tale for citizens who prefer to keep prisons out of sight, out of mind.

DEALING WITH DRUGS IN EUROPE: AN INVESTIGATION OF EUROPEAN DRUG CONTROL EXPERIENCES: FRANCE, THE NETHERLANDS AND SWEDEN, by Tim Boekhout van Solinge. Portland: Willan Publishing, 2004. $45.00 (paper). ISBN: 9054545186.

Mind-altering drugs such as cannabis, cocaine, heroin and others are illegal in many parts of the world, but distinct approaches for dealing with the question of illegal drug use have been developed country by country. In this book Tim Boekhout van Solinge describes the different approaches that have been adopted to dealing with the problem, with particular reference to the experience of France, the Netherlands and Sweden. He explores the justifications and rationalizations for the divergent, often contradictory attitudes and systems that have been developed, and concludes that differing national cultural traditions for handling social problems have greatly influenced the ways in which illicit drug use have been dealt with.

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