From: The Law and Politics Book Review
Vol. 17 No.6 (June 2007), pp.423-453
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
Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute
W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. [*424]
Cambridge University Press
Taxes, Spending, and the U.S. Government’s March Toward Bankruptcy, by Daniel N. Shaviro. Cambridge University Press, 2006. 251 pp. ISBN: 0-521-68958-9.
What’s in a word? Plenty, when it’s a word such as “taxes,” “spending,” or “deficits” that pervades Washington political debate despite lacking coherent economic content. The United States is moving toward a possible catastrophic fiscal collapse. The country may not get there, but the risk is unmistakable and growing. The “fiscal language” of taxes, spending, and deficits has played a huge and underappreciated role in the decisions that have pushed the nation in this dangerous direction. This book proposes a better fiscal language for U.S. budgetary policy, rooted in economic fundamentals such as wealth distribution and resource allocation in lieu of “taxes” and “spending” and in the use of multiple measures (such as the fiscal gap and generational accounting) to replace misguided reliance on annual budget deficits.
******************
A Lawyer’s Handbook for Enforcing Foreign Judgments in the United States and Abroad, by Robert E. Lutz. Cambridge University Press, 2006. 630 pp. ISBN: 0-521-85874-7.
This book assists the practitioner seeking to enforce a foreign judgment in the United States or a U.S. rendered judgment abroad in navigating the lack of procedural uniformity that exists and in planning strategies likely to ensure effective enforcement. As a handbook, it provides the practitioner with a framework and resources with which to approach and further research the laws of the relevant state or country. In Part One, the guide takes the practitioner chronologically through the process of obtaining a U.S. court’s recognition and enforcement of judgments rendered abroad. Part Two takes the practitioner through the process of obtaining an overseas jurisdiction’s recognition and enforcement of judgments rendered in the United States. Part Three assesses the current trends in the U.S. and in the international trade environment regarding enforcement of judgments which may be made by foreign courts.
******************
United Nations Interventionism 1991-2004, edited by Mats Berdal and Spyros Economides. Cambridge University Press, 2007. 303 pp. ISBN: 0-521-54767-9.
After years of paralysis, the 1990s saw an explosion in the number of United Nations field operations around the world. In terms of scope and level of ambition, these interventions went beyond the tried and tested principles of classical UN peacekeeping. [*425 Indeed, in some cases - such as Cambodia, Kosovo and East Timor - the UN presence assumed the form of quasi-protectorates designed to steer war-torn and deeply divided societies towards lasting peace. This book examines the UN’s performance and assesses the wider impact of ‘new interventionism’ on international order and the study of international relations. Featuring eight case studies of major UN interventions and an introductory chapter outlining the most important theoretical and political features of the international system which have led to the increased interventionary practices of the UN, this book will appeal to students and researchers in international relations and international organizations.
******************
Law in the United States, Second Edition, by Arthur T. von Mehren and Peter L. Murray. Cambridge University Press, 2007. 325 pp. ISBN: 0-521-61753-6.
Law in the United States, Second Edition, is a concise presentation of the salient elements of the American legal system designed mainly for jurists of civil law backgrounds. It focuses on features of American law likely to be least familiar to jurists from other legal traditions, such as American common law, the federal structure of the U.S. legal system, and the American constitutional tradition. The use of comparative law technique permits foreign jurists to appreciate the American legal system in comparison with legal systems with which they are already familiar. Chapters in the second edition also cover such topics as American civil justice, criminal law, jury trial, choice of laws and international jurisdiction, the American legal profession, and the influence of American law in the global legal order.
******************
Full Disclosure: The Perils and Promise of Transparency, by Archon Fung, Mary Graham, and David Weil. Cambridge University Press, 2007. 282 pp. ISBN: 0-521-87617-9.
Which SUVs are most likely to rollover? What cities have the unhealthiest drinking water? Which factories are the most dangerous polluters? What cereals are the most nutritious? In recent decades, governments have sought to provide answers to such critical questions through public disclosure to force manufacturers, water authorities, and others to improve their products and practices. Corporate financial disclosure, nutritional labels, and school report cards are examples of such targeted transparency policies. At best, they create a light-handed approach to governance that improves markets, enriches public discourse, and empowers citizens. But such policies are frequently ineffective or counterproductive. Based on an analysis of eighteen U.S. and international policies, Full Disclosure shows that information is often incomplete, incomprehensible, or irrelevant to consumers, investors, workers, and community residents. To be successful, transparency policies must be accurate, keep ahead of disclosers’ efforts to find loopholes, and, above all, focus on the needs of ordinary citizens. [*426]
******************
Peacemakers in Action: Profiles of Religion in Conflict Resolution, by David Little. Cambridge University Press, 2007. 250 pp. ISBN: 0-521-61894-0
Across the globe, there are more than 50 armed conflicts, many of which are being perpetrated in the name of religion. In these zones of violence, there are brave men and women who, motivated by their religious beliefs, are working to create and sustain peace and reconciliation. Yet their stories are unknown. This book explores the conflicts and the stories of 15 remarkable individuals identified and studied by the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding from regions as far-flung as West Papua, Indonesia, the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Nigeria, El Salvador and South Africa. The book also captures important lessons learned when these peacemakers convened in Amman, Jordan for the 2004 Peacemakers in Action Retreat and discussed their best techniques and greatest obstacles in creating peace on the ground. Peacemakers in Action provides guidance to students of religion and future peacemakers.
Carolina Academic Press
Contracts and Negotiating for the Businessperson: You and Your Lawyer, by Peter Siviglia. Carolina Academic Press, 2006. 90 pp. $15.00. ISBN: 1-59460-276-X
Contracts are the arteries through which business and commerce flow. Though the lawyer will generally draft the contract, the client’s participation in creating and refining the contract is essential. Producing a proper contract is a team effort, requiring deliberate and effective collaboration between client and lawyer. Failure to produce a proper contract can, and often does, result in a clogged artery. And the surgical procedure to correct that condition—litigation—is both wasteful and expensive.
Written in a conversational, anecdotal style by an attorney with over forty years experience in crafting commercial transactions, Contracts and Negotiating for the Businessperson (You and Your Lawyer) explains the role and responsibility of the client, the importance of not abdicating that responsibility, and how to establish an effective team effort. It also suggests methods to contain legal fees, treats several common practices that the author finds questionable, and addresses some myths about the legal profession. [*427]
******************
The United States Legal System: An Introduction, Second Edition, by Margaret Z. Johns and Rex R. Perschabacher. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 280 pp. $27.00 ISBN: 1-59460-249-2
This book is designed to introduce incoming law students to the U.S. legal system in order to prepare them to get the most out of law school from the day it begins. Authors Johns and Perschbacher do not assume a great deal of prior knowledge and begin by explaining what legal education is all about. There is then a chapter on the legal profession — who are all those lawyers, how are they regulated, and what are they doing? The book then covers the structure of our legal system, looking at the complex relationship between the states and the federal government as well as at the institutions of both. Finally, two important sources of law are considered: legislatures and courts. The book examines some of the ways that legislation is interpreted and some of the ways that the law evolves through the judicial process.
The authors revised and updated all the chapters, but the biggest change is the complete replacement of chapter 6. Chapter 6 is basically one, long, complicated case. In the new edition, the authors are using Lockyer v. San Francisco as it raises very interesting questions about the rule of law and separation of powers.
This book not only can serve as a crucial introduction for all law students but would also work well in an undergraduate course geared to pre-law students or a more general course about our contemporary legal system
******************
International Criminal Law: Cases and Materials, Third Edition, by Jordan H, Paust, et al. Carolina Academic Press, 2006. 936 pp. $110.00 ISBN: 1-59460-2476
The third edition has been significantly updated, especially to reflect case trends in the International Criminal Tribunals for Former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda (encompassing, among other matters, individual responsibility, defenses, war crimes, genocide, and other crimes against humanity), as well as developments and issues with respect to creation of the new permanent International Criminal Court. Some chapters have been deleted and some materials have been cut back to include new materials for a more manageable book.
******************
Sports Law: Cases and Materials, Second Edition, by Michael J. Cozzillio et al. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 1312 pp. $110.00 ISBN: 1-59460-291-3
This second edition updates the innovative casebook which is accessible to professors and students not thoroughly conversant in sports jurisprudence, yet challenging and provocative enough to be an essential reference to experts in the field. It contains cases, articles, relevant collective bargaining agreement provisions, legislation, critical commentary, notes, questions, and problems related to law and the sports industry.
“This casebook is a gem. It is both comprehensive and thorough, yet equally adaptable to a four-credit or two-credit course. The primer chapters on general contract, antitrust, and labor law are unique and invaluable to student and teacher alike. Most importantly, my students love it. They find the style accessible and the case notes relevant and helpful. [*428]
******************
Advanced Torts: Cases and Materials, Third Edition, by Peter B. Kutner and Osborne M. Reynolds, Jr. Carolina Academic Press, 2006. 820 pp. $95.00 ISBN: 1-59460-297-2
The Advanced Torts casebook is designed for courses on the major tort law subjects that are not included in the basic first-year tort courses. The popularity and consistent use of this casebook reflect the fact that the book is unique in its in-depth coverage of advanced torts subjects, which are now the principal growth areas of tort law. Subjects covered in Advanced Torts include defamation, the rights of privacy and publicity, harm to family relationships, wrongful birth, malicious prosecution, abuse of process, interference with common law civil rights, liability for economic loss, interference with contracts, interference with business relations, unfair competition, common law rights to literary and commercial creations and ideas, trade secrets, and other economic torts including injurious falsehood.
The third edition maintains the casebook’s clear organization and rich range of cases from not only the United States, but also England, Canada, Australia and other common law legal systems—cases selected as the most valuable for instructional purposes as well as for their influence in shaping tort law. New cases and notes, addressing such developing areas as liability for defamation in Internet communications, bring the material fully up-to-date. The casebook has ample material for courses and seminars on economic torts (business torts) or defamation and privacy (tort law and the communications media).
******************
The Law of International Organizations: Problems and Materials, Second Edition, by Michael P. Scharf. Carolina Academic Press, 2006. 1354 pp. $115.00 ISBN: 1-59460-302-2
This edition updates and expands the first.
This problem-oriented coursebook is designed to expose students to the most significant current legal issues relating to international organizations in a stimulating format. Each chapter begins with a role-playing exercise or simulation in the form of an introductory problem, which places the subsequent material in an exciting and realistic context. The Second Edition updates all of the existing chapters, and adds new chapters addressing organizations not covered in the First Edition, including the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and Interpol. In addition, it focuses on timely new issues, including the legality of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, protection of cultural property and artifacts, and balancing human rights and national security in the context of the war on terrorism. [*429]
The book covers issues relevant to many kinds of international organizations, focusing mainly on international organizations that are within the U.N. system, including the U.N. Secretariat, General Assembly, Security Council, Sanctions Committee, Credentials Committee, International Court of Justice, Human Rights Commission, International Financial Institutions, and International Criminal Tribunals. Scharf addresses such issues as political obstacles to the effective functioning of international organizations, interpretation of the Charters and regulations governing international organizations, questions of financing, credential challenges, succession problems, privileges and immunities disputes, efforts at Security Council reform, application and interpretation of U.N. sanctions resolutions, U.N. peacekeeping controversies, the issue of humanitarian intervention, and the role of international law in U.N. organized peace negotiations.
******************
Comparative Contract Law- Cases, Test and Materials: A Transystemic Approach With an Emphasis on the Continental Law, by Tadas Klimas. Carolina Academic Press, 2006. 668 pp. $95.00 ISBN: 0-89089-506-6
This is a casebook with an emphasis on Continental law, in a comparative, American-style format, with many references to U.S. and U.K. law. It illustrates the treatment of the most important topics of contract law by the various civil-law jurisdictions.
Each chapter begins with an introductory exposition, comparing and contrasting the law of the various jurisdictions, with numerous examples. This is followed by cases drawn from France, Brazil, Lithuania, Quebec, Russia, and other jurisdictions, as well as some from the United States. Each chapter ends with a set of exercises. The book serves as a good introduction to the principles of European Contract Law, which is the first step taken by Europe towards a pan-European contracts code. It can be used to teach American law students about Continental law in a familiar, case-based, format. It can also be used for teaching comparative contract law to European law students in the Socratic method. A teacher’s manual will be available.
******************
Refugee Law and Policy: A Comparative and International Approach, Third Edition, by Karen Musalo, Jennifer Moore, and Richard Boswell. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 1234 pp. $110.00 ISBN: 1-59460-299-9
This is a casebook with an emphasis on Continental law, in a comparative, American-style format, with many references to U.S. and U.K. law. It illustrates the treatment of the most important topics of contract law by the various civil-law jurisdictions. [*430]
Each chapter begins with an introductory exposition, comparing and contrasting the law of the various jurisdictions, with numerous examples. This is followed by cases drawn from France, Brazil, Lithuania, Quebec, Russia, and other jurisdictions, as well as some from the United States. Each chapter ends with a set of exercises. The book serves as a good introduction to the principles of European Contract Law, which is the first step taken by Europe towards a pan-European contracts code. It can be used to teach American law students about Continental law in a familiar, case-based, format. It can also be used for teaching comparative contract law to European law students in the Socratic method. A teacher’s manual will be available.
******************
Global Business Law: Principles and Practice of International Commerce and Investment, Second Edition, by John W. Head. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 776 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-180-1
This text, with its accompanying documentary Handbook for Global Business Law, substantially revises and updates the very popular first edition of Global Business Law (by David Frisch and Raj Bhala). In doing so, this second edition provides students of international business law (especially in law schools but also in practice) with a clear “story line” that addresses key questions facing international business lawyers as they advise clients on the three main forms of international business — commercial sales, licensing & franchising, and foreign direct investment. In particular, the new edition provides helpful chapter overviews and Study Questions to highlight key elements to be drawn from the material. These new features — together with a streamlining of case reports and secondary materials, a modest restructuring of the topics presented, additional illustrations and sample forms, and an updating from the earlier edition — combine to make this text a clean and comprehensive introduction to the principles and practice of global business law.
******************
Florida Property Law: Conveyancing and Governmental Controls, by John Makdisi. Carolina Academic Press, 2006. 524 pp. $50.00 ISBN: 1-59460-274-3
Florida Property Law adds two innovative features to the traditional mode of teaching the basic property course – a learning-by-doing approach and a focus on the law of one jurisdiction. In order to provide students with a deliberative learning-by-doing approach, this book is designed to present a hypothetical problem in advance of class so that the student can prepare an answer on his own for later discussion and evaluation in class. Each problem in the book is designed to be solved by reading, analyzing and applying the cases and materials that accompany it. Speed of analysis is no longer a primary factor for success in the classroom. The problems are more complex than those presented ad hoc by the teacher in class, and emphasis is now placed on the student’s proactive analytical abilities to solve issues on her own. [*431]
******************
A Dictionary of Statutory Interpretation, by William D. Popkin. Carolina Academic Press, 2006. 364 pp. $42.00 ISBN: 1-59460-181-X
Statutory interpretation has
become the most commonly-required skill of the modern lawyer. A Dictionary
of Statutory Interpretation provides a ready reference to the important
terms and ideas that arise in connection with determining the meaning of
legislation.
Each entry includes a definition, an explanation of the relevance of the term
and ideas for statutory interpretation, some history about its use, and a
concise discussion of contemporary issues. The author expresses his point of
view in the discussion of these issues – which is generally skeptical about
textualism – but presents all sides of the debate. A “reference” section allows
for further research on each subject.
Chapter 2 includes over 35 famous quotations dealing with the interpretation of
statutes, along with historical and critical commentary. The entries include
Learned Hand, Holmes, Calabresi, Posner, Easterbrook, Pound, Blackstone, etc.
The book will be useful for lawyers, judges, law professors, and law students
who want an entry into the contemporary debate about how to interpret
legislation, along with an insight into what is at stake in those debates.
******************
Tribal Governmental Gaming Law: Cases and Materials, by G. William Rice. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 880 pp. $110.00 ISBN: 1-59460-208-5
Tribal Governmental Gaming Law: Cases and Materials is a law school casebook and compilation of primary source materials setting out the federal laws which regulate gaming conducted by various Indian tribal governments. The casebook includes the National Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the Committee Report, and attorney opinions from the Office of General Counsel of the National Indian Gaming Commission. Beginning with the early case law which led to the development of the Indian gaming industry, major sections of the work address such issues as Gaming Management Contracts, the distinctions between Class II and Class III gaming, Tribal-State gaming compacts, the acquisition of land for tribal gaming facilities, and various other issues related to the Indian gaming industry. The text contains or refers to virtually every significant Indian gaming law case from the United States Courts of Appeals and the Supreme Court. The cases are carefully edited and arranged by the issues litigated and, when relevant, by circuit.
Students of Indian gaming law who have not taken the introductory course in Indian law, and practitioners without a background in Federal Indian Law will appreciate the introductory material which takes the form of a “conceptual glossary” providing working [*432] definitions of some Indian law terms which are important to understanding the issues which relate to gaming by Indian tribal governments. For those with an adequate background in the core concepts of Federal Indian Law, this material will provide a useful review, and perhaps provoke discussion of the basic assumptions upon which the law is based.
The edited cases, combined with the primary legislative and administrative materials, the introductory material, and provocative notes, make this an excellent teaching tool for students and faculty, and a reference book which should remain useful for many years to those involved in the Indian gaming industry.
******************
Civil Procedure: Cases, Texts, Notes and Problems, by Larry L. Teply, Ralph U. Whitten, and Denis F. McLaughlin. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 800 pp. $100.00 ISBN: 1-59460-204-2
Civil Procedure: Cases, Text, Notes, and Problems is designed for use in law school courses on Civil Procedure. This casebook begins with a comprehensive overview, followed by in-depth topical coverage. Its extensive textual discussion—along with the cases, notes, questions, and problems—helps students develop rapid comprehension of the subject. The problems throughout the casebook present students with the opportunity to apply the legal rules and policies studied in the previous materials in both familiar and unfamiliar contexts. This innovative approach provides both efficient and effective coverage of all the major areas of civil procedure, even in courses with reduced hours of credit.
******************
Florida Wills, Trusts & Estates: Cases and Materials, by Elena Marty-Nelson, et al. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 888 pp. $100.00 ISBN: 0-89089-627-5
Civil Procedure: Cases, Text, Notes, and Problems is designed for use in law school courses on Civil Procedure. This casebook begins with a comprehensive overview, followed by in-depth topical coverage. Its extensive textual discussion—along with the cases, notes, questions, and problems—helps students develop rapid comprehension of the subject. The problems throughout the casebook present students with the opportunity to apply the legal rules and policies studied in the previous materials in both familiar and unfamiliar contexts. This innovative approach provides both efficient and effective coverage of all the major areas of civil procedure, even in courses with reduced hours of credit. [*433]
******************
Florida Family Law: Text and Commentary- 2006 Statutes, by Phyllis Coleman. Carolina Academic Press, 2006. 790 pp. $70.00 ISBN: 1-59460-340-5
This book is an essential addition to the library of anyone who has an occasion to deal with family law issues in Florida. It offers ready access to selected Florida constitutional provisions and statutes, relevant federal laws, summaries of recent court decisions, and practical tips concerning legislative inconsistencies. A detailed index effectively facilitates use.
******************
Handbook for Global Business Law: Treaties, Statutes, Guidelines, Samples, and Other Materials on International Commerce and Investment, Second Edition, by John W. Head. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 534 pp. $45.00 ISBN: 1-59460-382-0
This Handbook on Global Business Law is designed to serve two aims. First, and most importantly, it provides a wide variety of statutory, treaty, and other material to be studied in connection with the text entitled Global Business Law. Second, this Handbook also speaks to practitioners. The materials gathered here include what the author regards as some of the most important materials that a practitioner should have at his or her fingertips as questions arise in practice regarding international business transactions.
For both of these purposes—to help students in their learning of global business law and to help practitioners and their clients in conducting transactions—the author has tried to provide not only the text of the materials themselves, whether they are statutes or treaties or guidelines or sample forms, but also explanatory notes. Many documents used in international business, and appearing in this Handbook, do not make it obvious on their face just what they are and why they matter. The author has tried to provide this information in a “Note” at the beginning of each document in the Handbook. In addition, the author has provided an introductory explanation at the beginning of each of the six Sections into which this Handbook is divided.
******************
Florida Constitutional Law: Cases and Materials, Fourth Edition, by John F. Cooper and Thomas C. Marks, Jr. Carolina Academic Press, 2006. 792 pp. $90.00 ISBN: 1-59460-278-6
Florida Constitutional Law, a casebook used in Florida since 1992, is now in its fourth edition. Authors Cooper and Marks include the functions of a state constitution and how the Florida constitution in amended; separation of power issues; the major constitutional limits on legislative power; the constitutional jurisdiction of Florida courts, as well as the separation of powers limits on the courts that resemble the Article III limits on federal judicial power; units of local government and their relationship to the state and each other; the major constitutional limitations on taxation and borrowing; a selected review of various provisions of the Declaration of Rights, including Florida’s privacy guarantee (which is far more extensive than privacy under the United States Constitution), and Florida’s homestead provision. The authors have shortened this edition, making it more user friendly than the Third Edition. [*434]
******************
The Law of the European Union, Volume 2: Economic Law and Common Policies: Cases and Materials, by Alain A. Levasseur. Carolina Academic Press, 2006. 918 pp. $110.00 ISBN: 1-59460-202-6
This volume is a study of European Union business law, including, among others, the four freedoms (goods, persons, services, capital), competition, commercial policy, agricultural policy, external trade, and intellectual property.
******************
A Comprehensive Review of Revised Article 9, by Willa E. Gibson. Carolina Academic Press, 2006. 202 pp. ISBN: 0-89089-113-3.
A Comprehensive Review of Revised Article 9 provides a detailed review and explanation of Revised Article 9 of the UCC by examining revisions made to areas of Scope, Attachment, Perfection, Priority, and Default provisions found within Article 9. The book treats each area separately with cross-referencing to other areas when necessary to provide an in-depth analysis of Revised Article 9. For each area, the book provides a commentary concerning differences between Revised and Former Article 9, and it also includes detailed outlines of the revised rules. Many hypotheticals are included within the outlines to illustrate the legal application of the rules to both commercial and consumer financing transactions. The book also includes multiple choice questions for each of the revised areas along, with discussions that identify the correct answers (and explain why the answers are correct as well as why the other choices are incorrect). The book is ideal for students or practitioners who need guidance in this new area of law and can serve as a reference source for academicians.
******************
The Affective Assistance of Counsel, by Marjorie Silver. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 566 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-111-9.
This book is intended for lawyers and law students interested in developing the competencies to practice law as a healthy, healing profession, one that the lawyer finds fulfilling and rewarding and that is beneficial and healing for the client. It will interest those inclined towards new directions in lawyering, psychology and multiculturalism. In addition, it will be a useful text in clinical law teaching as well as other courses aimed at finding alternative, humanistic approaches to legal practice.
The incidence of alcoholism, substance abuse and depression among lawyers, as well as widespread dissatisfaction with the practice of law, underscore the importance of developing healthy, healing alternatives to traditional, largely adversarial, law practice. Despite increasing interest in alternatives to traditional legal practice, embodied in what Professor Susan Daicoff has characterized as The Comprehensive Law Movement, and including schools of thought such as Therapeutic Jurisprudence, there currently exists no compendium of the competencies needed for such practice. In addition, there is little in the literature of the Comprehensive Law Movement that explores the particular challenges of cross-cultural representation. This book is intended to fill that void. [*435]
Documenting Results: Research on Problem-Solving Justice, a collection from the Center for Court Innovation. Center for Court Innovation. 398 pp. ISBN: 0-9759505-1-7.
This collection of research reports, written by Center for Court Innovation staff, analyzes the impact of a broad range of problem-solving initiatives launched in New York State and nationwide over the past decade. Among the findings: judicially monitored drug treatment succeeds in reducing recidivism among addicted offenders; more than 85 percent of offenders at an experimental community court thought their cases were handled fairly-a significant improvement compared to conventional courts; by linking mentally ill offenders to community-based treatment instead of incarceration, courts can help improve offenders functioning and reduce the likelihood of re-arrest. The book also includes overviews of the national research literature on drug courts and community courts; an evaluation of a new approach to teen dating violence; and an investigation of how problem-solving principles might be integrated more broadly throughout state court systems.
Greenwood Press
The South Carolina State Constitution: A Reference Guide, by Cole Blease Graham, Jr. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. 268 pp. $150.00 ISBN: 0-313-29299-X
South Carolina’s current constitution is a unique reflection of America’s cultural and political history. It has roots dating back to the state’s original colonial charter, and today’s text comprises an uneasy alliance of its post-Civil War history, its late 19th century return to segregation, and the post-1960s liberalizing reforms. Graham’s discussion of this state constitution illustrates the success of positive political forces in a Deep South state often stereotyped nationally as negative or backward. His conclusions challenge students and advocates of constitutional reform to continue revision efforts, making this volume an important contribution to the study of state politics and the principles of democratic government. This volume traces the history and evolution of [*436] South Carolina’s constitution over three centuries and offers a detailed, section-by-section commentary on its current text. Graham references legal cases, commission reports, historical scholarship, current debates, and other relevant material to highlight the changing interpretations of the constitution over time. A bibliographic essay and list of cases illustrate significant sources for further study.
******************
The Imperial Presidency and the Consequences of 9/11: Lawyers React to the Global War on Terrorism, Volume 1 and 2, by James R. Silkenat and Mark R. Shulman. Greenwood Publishing. 224 pp. ISBN: 0-275-99441-4.
The issue of the “imperial presidency,” which is raised in connection with the Bush administration’s response to the legal issues flowing from the 9/11 attacks, is one that now resonates broadly across the American political landscape: not just with Democrats, but with Republicans too; and not just with lawyers, but with the American public generally. Are the legal powers of the President unlimited in cases of terrorist attacks on the United States? Do the courts and legislatures have a role to play? How relevant is the US Constitution in these instances? These reports, compiled by the NYC Bar Association, merit wider distribution. Thus Silkenat and Shulman have brought them together to give readers a clearer sense of what the rule of law really means to Americans. As noted in the NYT editorial in January 2006: “Nothing in the national consensus to combat terrorism after 9/11 envisioned the unilateral rewriting of more than 200 years of tradition and law by the president embarked on an ideological crusade.” Over the past few years, much lip service has been paid to the phrase “rule of law.” At the same time, the US government has avoided basic rule of law principles by holding prisoners outside the law (off the books and out of Red Cross supervision, off shore or even on US soil but without due process or urgent matter that bears on the security of this country). In both volumes, learned practitioners and scholars are arguing in favor of adherence to time-tested principles. Each report will have a preface that places the material in historical and legal context.
******************
Judicial Jurisdiction: A Reference Guide to the United States Constitution, by Patrick Baude. Greenwood Publishing. 135 pp. ISBN: 9780313312045.
One of the ways in which the American constitution is unique among the world’s mature democracies is the vesting of the power of constitutional review in the ordinary courts rather than in a specialized constitutional body. Baude uses frank, understandable language to explain the relationship between the constition and our rule of law. Without technical jurisdictional jargon, Baude is able to survey historical cases to analyze Article III, section 2 of the United States Constitution. However, Baude’s work is vastly different from analytical works based on philosophical and technicalities of judicial jurisdiction. This work explores the relationship between the two, without drawing on the covert ideological premises of legal liberalism. [*437]
******************
The Right to a Speedy and Public Trial: A Reference Guide to the United States Constitution, by Susan N. Herman. Greenwood Publishing. 255 pp. ISBN: 0-313-32108-6.
Herman provides an analysis and reference guide for the
rights to a speedy and public trial that the Sixth Amendment guarantees in all
criminal prosecutions. She provides a history of the generation of each right
from ancient times through the present. The public trial chapters analyze the
development of Supreme Court case law interpreting the Sixth Amendment rights
and the companion First Amendment right of public access to trials, and then
discuss current questions about open proceedings involving alleged terrorists.
The speedy trial chapters trace the development of the ideal of prompt
proceedings and the Supreme Court’s laws in this area, including a critique of
the major Supreme Court cases.
Discussion of recent case law highlights open issues regarding the scope of the
Sixth Amendment rights and comments on the impact of speedy trial legislation
introduced in the 1970s. Each section concludes with a bibliographical essay
discussing the major books and law review articles written in each area and also
included a table of cases cited.
The Cost of Democracy: Party Funding in Modern British Politics, by K D Ewing. Hart Publishing, 2007. 279 pp. ISBN: 1-84113-716-2
Party funding has given rise to great controversy since
1997, and continues to do so. In recent years, row has followed row - from
million-pound donations, to the so-called ‘loans for peerages’ affair. The
question was the subject of an official investigation by Sir Hayden Phillips,
whose blueprint for reform was produced in March 2007. This book charts the
evolution of the party funding problem in recent years and explores the
weaknesses of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, which
was enacted in a vain attempt to clean up British politics.
The book sets out a number of core principles which should inform the
development of public policy in this field, and examines the different
strategies for the implementation of these principles. Having regard to the
experience of other countries, including Canada, Germany and Sweden, a radical
framework of reform is proposed, designed to address the emerging crisis of
party government with serious implications for democracy itself. The main
concern is with the development of bold reform initiatives to encourage
political parties to recruit and retain members, and give members rights in
relation to the government and administration of these parties. [*438]
This thoughtful yet hard-hitting account by one of the leading scholars in the
field will be of interest to constitutional lawyers and political scientists, as
well as journalists and those with an interest in the way we are governed.
Anarchy and the Law: The Political Economy of Choice, by Edward P. Stringham. The Independent Institute. 698 pp. ISBN: 1-4128-0579-1.
Anarchy and the Law assembles for the first time in one volume the most important classic and contemporary studies exploring and debating non-state legal and political systems, especially involving the tradition of natural law and private contracts.
Should markets and contracts provide law, and can the rule of law itself be understood as a private institution? Are the state and its police powers benign societal forces, or are they a system of conquest, authoritarianism, occupation, and exploitation?
From the early works of Gustave de Molinari, Edmund Burke, Voltairine de Cleyre, Benjamin Tucker, David Lipscomb, and Lysander Spooner to the contemporary thinking of Murray Rothbard, David Friedman, Anthony De Jasay and Bruce Benson, Anarchy and the Law features the key studies exploring and debating the efficacy of individual choice and markets versus the shortfalls of coercive government power and bureaucracy. In so doing, the book also features debates involving Roderick Long’s argument against a nationalized military and Robert Nozick’s critique of stateless legal systems, as well as the work of such scholars as Nobel Laureate economist Douglass North, Tyler Cowen, Robert Ellickson, Randall Holcombe, Randy Barnett, Barry Weingast, Terry Anderson, Andrew Rutten, Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, and others.
Whereas liberals and conservatives argue in favor of political constraints, Anarchy and the Law examines whether to check against abuse, government power must be replaced by a social order of self-government based on contracts.
Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute
Landmark Cases Left out of Your Textbooks, by Ann Fagan Ginger (ed). Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, 2006. 84 pp. ISBN: 0-913876-21-6. [*439]
This is a short book for law students and legal workers on
very important cases in basic fields of law: criminal, immigration, labor,
constitutional, international, environmental, military, poverty, administrative,
and legal ethics. It is based on interviews with the lawyers and clients
whenever possible.
The roles of successful lawyers and legal workers in the future will not be the
same as the roles of successful lawyers before the Bush-Cheney “war on
terrorism.” The winners will be the ones who know what lawyers did in the
repressive 1880s, the 1920s, the Cold War 1940-60s, before Brown v. Board of
Education, and after the Yippies and the Black Panthers.
Lawyers (and clients) sometimes got on page one to build
the climate for the coming jury selection. Sometimes they won by not filing a
case that would go before a prejudiced judge and jury. They found new venues: a
hearing or a bill in Congress, a petition for a Governor’s pardon, conciliation
after stalled litigation, complaints to the Office of Inspector General. Katrina
victims just made a report to the United Nations Human Rights Committee.
Many of these cases were won after jury trials, so there is
no written opinion to include in traditional casebooks. But there are records of
what the lawyers and clients did and said published in books, and often on the
web. They are cited here for further research.
Today’s students can get ideas from people not in today’s history books: Los
Siete de la Raza, Fannie Lou Hamer of MFDP, Harry Bridges of the CIC, and Pete
Seeger of the Weavers. Harriet Bouslog Sawyer saved her bar card in Hawai’i with
bravado.
Practitioners often feel that “It may be rough, but we might actually WIN this
damn case in the next ten years.” Today’s students can get that hopeful feeling
by reading what people did in similar impossible cases. And a few of the
defendants who proclaimed their innocence from the electric chair or Death Row
have descendants and organizations and lawyers who are keeping the issues alive.
The victories, and defeats, in these cases changed forever the lives of the
parties, and often of their communities, and sometimes changed the wording of a
regulation or a statute.
It is, of course, impossible to include every significant
victory in a short book. The cases selected involve the kinds of clients and
issues and opponents future lawyers and legal workers will face. Each seemed to
set a precedent for future actions by the parties that helped shape later law
practice and law enforcement.
Change of State: Information, Policy and Power, by Sandra Braman. MIT Press, 2007. 545 pp. ISBN: 0-262-02597-3. [*440]
As the informational state replaces
the bureaucratic welfare state, control over information creation, processing,
flows, and use has become the most effective form of power. In Change of
State Sandra Braman examines the theoretical and practical ramifications of
this “change of state.” She looks at the ways in which governments are
deliberate, explicit, and consistent in their use of information policy to
exercise power, exploring not only such familiar topics as intellectual property
rights and privacy but also areas in which policy is highly effective but little
understood. Such lesser-known issues include hybrid citizenship, the use of
“functionally equivalent borders” internally to allow exceptions to U.S. law,
research funding, census methods, and network interconnection. Trends in
information policy, argues Braman, both manifest and trigger change in the
nature of governance itself.
After laying the theoretical, conceptual, and historical
foundations for understanding the informational state, Braman examines 20
information policy principles found in the U.S Constitution. She then explores
the effects of U.S. information policy on the identity, structure, borders, and
change processes of the state itself and on the individuals, communities, and
organizations that make up the state. Looking across the breadth of the legal
system, she presents current law as well as trends in and consequences of
several information policy issues in each category affected.
Change of State introduces information policy on
two levels, coupling discussions of specific contemporary problems with more
abstract analysis drawing on social theory and empirical research as well as
law. Most important, the book provides a way of understanding how information
policy brings about the fundamental social changes that come with the
transformation to the informational state.
_____________________________________________________________Back to top
An Introduction to German Law, Fourth Edition, by Gerhard Robbers. Nomos, 2006. 409 pp. ISBN: 3-8329-2051-X.
Only review is in German. Die Grundideen und Strukturen einer Rechtsordnung erschließen sich am ehesten bei einer Gesamtbetrachtung möglichst aller ihrer Teile. Aus einer Hand werden in der aktuellen englischsprachigen Auflage die für das Verständnis und die praktische Handhabung wesentlichen Gebiete und Grundfragen des deutschen Rechts dargestellt. Studenten in den Anfangssemestern, ausländische Studierende und Praktiker sowie interessierte Laien finden hier einen Überblick und erste Informationen über die deutsche Rechtsordnung. Der Band ist ideal auch für das Erlernen der englischen Fachterminologie. Die 4. Auflage berücksichtigt die aktuellen Auswirkungen der europäischen Rechtsentwicklung für das deutsche Recht und bringt die Darstellung auf den neuesten Stand. Der Band ist Teil der umfassenden Reihe »Die Rechtsordnungen der europäischen Staaten«, die – einem gemeinsamen inhaltlichen Aufbau folgend – die nationalen Rechtssysteme der wichtigsten europäischen Staaten behandelt. Der Autor ist Professor für öffentliches Recht an der Universität Trier, Herausgeber der Reihe und Leiter der Forschungsstelle für Europäisches Verfassungsrecht. [*441]
_____________________________________________________________
Princeton University Press
_____________________________________________________________Back to top
Out of Eden: Adam and Eve and the Problem of Evil, by Paul W. Kahn. Princeton University Press, 2006. 240 pp. ISBN: 0-691-12693-3.
In Out of Eden, Paul W. Kahn offers a philosophical meditation on the problem of evil. He uses the Genesis story of the Fall as the starting point for a profound articulation of the human condition. Kahn shows us that evil expresses the rage of a subject who knows both that he is an image of an infinite God and that he must die. Kahn’s interpretation of Genesis leads him to inquiries into a variety of modern forms of evil, including slavery, torture, and genocide.
Kahn takes issue with Hannah Arendt’s theory of the banality of evil, arguing that her view is an instance of the modern world’s lost capacity to speak of evil. Psychological, social, and political accounts do not explain evil as much as explain it away. Focusing on the existential roots of evil rather than on the occasions for its appearance, Kahn argues that evil originates in man’s flight from death. He urges us to see that the opposite of evil is not good, but love: while evil would master death, love would transcend it.
Offering a unique perspective that combines political and cultural theory, law, and philosophy, Kahn here continues his project of advancing a political theology of modernity.
******************
Going Local: Decentralization, Democratization, and the Promise of Good Governance, by Merilee S. Grindle. Princeton University Press, 2007. 228 pp. ISBN: 0-691-12907-X.
Many developing countries have a history of highly centralized governments. Since the late 1980s, a large number of these governments have introduced decentralization to increase democracy and improve services, especially in small communities far from capital cities. In Going Local, an unprecedented study of the effects of decentralization on thirty Mexican municipalities, Merilee Grindle describes how local governments respond when they are assigned new responsibilities and resources under decentralization policies. She explains why decentralization leads to better local governments in some cases--and why it fails to in others. [*442]
Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, Grindle examines data based on a random sample of Mexican municipalities--and ventures into town halls to follow public officials as they seek to manage a variety of tasks amid conflicting pressures and new expectations. Decentralization, she discovers, is a double-edged sword. While it allows public leaders to make significant reforms quickly, institutional weaknesses undermine the durability of change, and legacies of the past continue to affect how public problems are addressed. Citizens participate, but they are more successful at extracting resources from government than in holding local officials and agencies accountable for their actions. The benefits of decentralization regularly predicted by economists, political scientists, and management specialists are not inevitable, she argues. Rather, they are strongly influenced by the quality of local leadership and politics.
Oxford University Press
The Language of Law School: Learning to “Think Like a Lawyer,” by Elizabeth Mertz. Oxford University Press. 308 pp. ISBN: 0-19-518310-X.
Anyone who has attended law
school knows that it invokes an important intellectual transformation,
frequently referred to as learning to think like a lawyer. This process, which
forces students to think and talk in radically new and different ways about
conflicts, is directed by professors in the course of their lectures and
examinations, and conducted via spoken and written language. Beth Mertz’s book
is the first study to truly delve into that language to reveal the complexities
of how this process takes place.
Mertz bases her linguistic study on tape recordings from first year Contracts
courses in eight different law schools. She shows how all these schools employ
the Socratic method between teacher and student, forcing the student to shift
away from moral and emotional terms in thinking about conflict, toward
frameworks of legal authority instead. This move away from moral frameworks is
key, she says, arguing that it represents an underlying worldview at the core
not just of law education, but for better or worse, of the entire US legal
system which, while providing a useful source of legitimacy and a means to
process conflict, fails to deal systematically with aspects of fairness and
social justice. The latter part of her study shows how differences in race and
gender makeup among law students and professors can subtly alter this process.
Written within the tradition of anthropological linguistics, Mertz’s work -- the
first to study law school in this sort of detail, will appeal to a wide spectrum
of readers interested in the intersection of law, language, and society:
sociolinguists; anthropologists; feminist, race, and social theorists, and law
professors. [*443]
******************
Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge, by Cass R. Sunstein. Oxford University Press, 2006. 273 pp. ISBN: 0-19-0518928-5.
Description
The
rise of the “information society” offers not only considerable peril but also
great promise. Beset from all sides by a never-ending barrage of media, how can
we ensure that the most accurate information emerges and is heeded? In this
book, Cass R. Sunstein develops a deeply optimistic understanding of the human
potential to pool information, and to use that knowledge to improve our lives.
In an age of information overload, it is easy to fall back on our own prejudices
and insulate ourselves with comforting opinions that reaffirm our core beliefs.
Crowds quickly become mobs. The justification for the Iraq war, the collapse of
Enron, the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia-all of these resulted from
decisions made by leaders and groups trapped in “information cocoons,” shielded
from information at odds with their preconceptions. How can leaders and ordinary
people challenge insular decision making and gain access to the sum of human
knowledge?
Stunning new ways to share and aggregate information, many Internet-based, are
helping companies, schools, governments, and individuals not only to acquire,
but also to create, ever-growing bodies of accurate knowledge. Through a
ceaseless flurry of self-correcting exchanges, wikis, covering everything from
politics and business plans to sports and science fiction subcultures, amass-and
refine-information. Open-source software enables large numbers of people to
participate in technological development. Prediction markets aggregate
information in a way that allows companies, ranging from computer manufacturers
to Hollywood studios, to make better decisions about product launches and office
openings. Sunstein shows how people can assimilate aggregated information
without succumbing to the dangers of the herd mentality--and when and why the
new aggregation techniques are so astoundingly accurate.
In a world where opinion and anecdote increasingly compete on equal footing with
hard evidence, the on-line effort of many minds coming together might well
provide the best path to infotopia.
******************
Saving Children from a Life of Crime: Early Risk Factors and Effective Interventions, by David P. Farrington and Brandon C. Welsh. Oxford University Press, 2006. 233 pp. ISBN: 0-19-530409-8.
Description
After
decades of rigorous study in the United States and across the Western world, a
great deal is known about the early risk factors for offending. High
impulsiveness, low attainment, criminal parents, parental conflict, and growing
up in a deprived, high-crime neighborhood are among the most important factors.
There is also a growing body of high quality scientific evidence on the
effectiveness of early prevention programs [*444] designed to prevent children
from embarking on a life of crime.
Drawing on the latest evidence, Saving Children from a Life of Crime is
the first book to assess the early causes of offending and what works best to
prevent it. Preschool intellectual enrichment, child skills training, parent
management training, and home visiting programs are among the most effective
early prevention programs. Criminologists David Farrington and Brandon Welsh
also outline a policy strategy--early prevention--that uses this current
research knowledge and brings into sharper focus what America’s national crime
fighting priority ought to be.
At a time when unacceptable crime levels in America, rising criminal justice
costs, and a punitive crime policy have spurred a growing interest in the early
prevention of delinquency, Farrington and Welsh here lay the groundwork for
change with a comprehensive national prevention strategy to save children from a
life of crime.
******************
A Republic Divided by the Annenberg Democracy Project. Oxford University Press. 260 pp. ISBN: 978-0-19-532527-0.
The Institutions of American
Democracy series, published in partnership with the Annenberg Foundation
Trust at Sunnylands and the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC), is designed
to stimulate debate about the future of American democracy. Commissions of the
nation’s leading scholars as well as practitioners directly involved with each
of these institutions gathered together to discuss the important issues being
debated within each. Led by a stellar national advisory board, the first five
volumes were published in late 2005 and focused on the executive branch,
legislative branch, judicial branch, public schools, and the press.
This sixth volume in the series assesses the state of
American democracy by taking a close look at how people see these five core
institutions. Through an analysis of opinion surveys commissioned by the APPC,
A Republic Divided compares the views of
the general population with those of the insiders. Topics addressed include the
separation of powers, trust, knowledge, effectiveness, and many other issues. In
addition to chapters on each institution, there are also cross-institutional
analyses on separation of powers and on trust and performance, including a
discussion of the tensions that each institution has with the press. An appendix
includes technical details about the surveys, and the book concludes with an
index. All of the toplines and data sets for the surveys are available on the
APPC Web site: www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org
Stanford University Press
New and Old Wars, 2nd Edition, by Mary Kaldor. Stanford University Press, 2007. 231 pp. ISBN: 0-8047-5646-5. [*445]
Mary Kaldor’s New and Old Wars has fundamentally changed the way we understand contemporary war and conflict. In the context of globalization, this path-breaking book has shown that what we think of as war - that is to say, war between states in which the aim is to inflict maximum violence - is becoming an anachronism. In its place is a new type of organized violence which could be described as a mixture of war, organized crime and massive violations of human rights. The actors are both global and local, public and private. The wars are fought for particularistic political goals using tactics of terror and destabilization that are theoretically outlawed by the rules of modern warfare.
Kaldor’s analysis offers a basis for a cosmopolitan political response to these wars, in which the monopoly of legitimate organized violence is reconstructed on a transnational basis and international peacekeeping is reconceptualized as cosmopolitan law enforcement.
******************
A Glossary of U.S. Politics & Government, by Alex Thomson. Stanford University Press, 2007. 196 pp. ISBN: 0-8047-5730-0.
This thorough glossary explains the key concepts, institutions, personalities, and events most commonly referred to in the teaching of U.S. politics and government. The author has emphasized accessibility, in order to provide students with a ready source of knowledge that can supplement core reading. The book will help students to address any gaps they may have in their understanding of U.S. politics, which, in turn, will make studying this fascinating subject all the more rewarding and enjoyable.
Temple University Press
Comprehending Columbine, by Ralph W. Larkin. Temple University Press, 2007. 264 pp. ISBN: 1-59213-491-2.
“Larkin creates a powerful lens to examine the complexities of the forces which
contributed to the Columbine tragedy. The introductory narrative of the rampage
is so vivid that both the casual and studied reader will be instantly
engaged.... Drawing on his skill as an interviewer and researcher, Larkin is
able to give the reader a glimpse of the cultural and everyday social reality of
Columbine High School [and he] does an excellent job of situating school
shootings in the larger cultural landscape of violence in America. Larkin’s book
is destined to be the definitive work on the Columbine shootings.”
—Raymond Calluori, New Jersey Institute of Technology [*446]
On April 20, 1999, two Colorado teenagers went on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School. That day, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed twelve fellow students and a teacher, as well as wounding twenty-four other people, before they killed themselves. Although there have been other books written about the tragedy, this is the first serious, impartial investigation into the cultural, environmental, and psychological causes of the massacre.
Based on first-hand interviews and a thorough reading of the relevant literature, Ralph Larkin examines the numerous factors that led the two young men to plan and carry out their deed. For Harris and Klebold, Larkin concludes, the carnage was an act of revenge against the “jocks” who had harassed and humiliated them, retribution against evangelical students who acted as if they were morally superior, an acting out of the mythology of right-wing paramilitary organization members to “die in a blaze of glory,” and a deep desire for notoriety.
Rather than simply looking at Columbine as a crucible for all school violence, Larkin places the tragedy in its proper context, and in doing so, examines its causes and meaning.
University of Oklahoma Press
Ballots and Bullets: The Bloody Count Seat Wars of Kansas, by Robert K. DeArment. University of Oklahoma Press, 2006. 272 pp. ISBN: 0-8061-3784-3.
“Bleeding Kansas” has earned its name. A state already scarred from the violence wrought by the likes of John Brown and William Quantrill, Kansas witnessed further episodes of wanton bloodshed in the late nineteenth century when settlers poured into a supposedly peaceful frontier.
Focusing on the tumultuous years 1885–1892, Robert K. DeArment’s compelling narrative is the first to reveal the complete story of the county seat wars that raged in Kansas—controversial episodes that made national news in the late 1900s but are largely unknown today.
With a story populated by some of the most notorious characters of the West—including Sam Wood, Theodosius Botkin, Bat Masterson, and Bill Tilghman—Ballots and Bullets relives the violence that only avarice can breed. Ordinary, decent citizens were drawn into bitter conflicts to advance their own communities and block the fortunes of other towns, even if it meant using hired gunmen.
Gripping and historically accurate, DeArment’s account reveals a shocking chapter in the history of the West. [*447]
Imagination for Crime Prevention: Essays in Honour of Ken Pease, by Graham Farrell, Kate J. Bowers, Shane D. Johnson, and Michael Townsley. Willan Publishing, 2007. 285 pp. $53.50 (hardback) $42.50 ISBN: 978-1-881798-71-2
The
role of imagination in preventing crime, as exemplified in the career of British
criminologist Ken Pease, is celebrated in volume 21 of Crime Prevention Studies.
Professor Pease’s hundreds of published works include pioneering studies of
repeat victimization, situational crime prevention, victimization surveys, crime
displacement, predicting crime futures, crime science, and many other topics. In
tribute to Dr. Pease, colleagues and former students have contributed 13
chapters to this volume that build upon his groundbreaking research.
Chapter topics include: a “prospective obituary” of Ken Pease; from crime
prevention to crime science; making offender richer; common pitfalls in crime
prevention; confusion, conflict and contradiction in designing out crime; has
Section 17 of the UK’s Crime and Disorder Act been effective?; the Nottingham
Burglary Risk Index; the impact of crime on male victims; fear of crime,
perceived disorders and property crime; an evaluation of the effects of CCTV on
crime; burglary prediction; risky facilities; and repeat victimization in
prison.
******************
Expanding the Criminological Imagination: Critical Readings in Criminology, by Alanda Barton, Karen Corteen, David Scott, and David Whyte. Willan Publishing, 2007. 226 pp. ISBN: 1-843921-56-1
This book brings together a series of writings on the problems facing contemporary criminology, highlighting the main theoretical priorities of critical analysis and their application to substantive case studies of research in action. Its main aim is to establish the conceptual and practical foundations for a new generation of studies in criminology, and to set a new agenda for critical criminology. Each chapter will critically assess the main conceptual and empirical problems they have encountered in their research, and to bring to life the key theoretical debates within the discipline. This book will be essential reading for students seeking an understanding of the nature of the discipline of criminology and criminological research.
******************
Young People and Offending: Education, Youth Justice and Social Inclusion, by Martin Stephenson. Willan Publishing, 2007. 271 pp. ISBN: 1-84392-154-5
The relationship between
education and youth crime has long been recognised in terms of social policy and
public opinion, the full extent of this and its implications has been [*448]
largely neglected and unexplored: educationalists on the one hand and
criminologists on the other have largely failed to engage meaningfully with one
another on the issue, and there has often been a large gap between youth justice
and educational provision.
This book seeks to remedy this deficiency, providing a critical survey of the
research evidence, policy development and practical issues relating to education
and offending by young people. It has the following objectives: to examine the
evolution of social policy and institutions in relation to the relationship
between education and offending by young people; establish the scale and nature
of the problem and the characteristics of the young people involved; identify
any evidence based approaches that could be adopted across education and youth
justice; review the effectiveness of New Labour’s education and youth justice
reforms; propose a series of measures for social policy makers and practitioners
in education and youth justice.
Young People and Offending will be essential reading for youth justice
practitioners as well as students taking courses on youth crime and youth
justice, or on youth justice or probation training courses.
******************
Imagining Security, by Jennifer Wood and Clifford Shearing. Willan Publishing. 184 pp. ISBN: 1-84392-074-3.
This book is concerned with
the ways in which the problem of security is thought about and promoted by a
range of actors and agencies in the public, private and nongovernmental sectors.
The authors are concerned not simply with the influence of risk-based thinking
in the area of security, but seek rather to map the mentalities and practices of
security found in a variety of sectors, and to understand the ways in which
thinking from these sectors influence one another. Their particular concern is
to understand the drivers of innovation in the governance of security, the
conditions that make innovation possible and the ways in which innovation is
imagined and realised by actors from a wide range of sectors.
The book has two key themes: first, governance is now no longer simply shaped by
thinking within the state sphere, for thinking originating within the business
and community spheres now also shapes governance, and influence one another.
Secondly, these developments have implications for the future of democratic
values as assumptions about the traditional role of government are increasingly
challenged.
The first five chapters of the book explore what has happened to the governance
of security, through an analysis of the drivers, conditions and processes of
innovation in the context of particular empirical developments. Particular
reference is made here to ‘waves of change’ in security within the Ontario
Provincial Police in Canada. In the final chapter the authors examine the
implications of ‘nodal governance’ for democratic values, and then suggest
normative directions for deepening democracy in these new circumstances. [*449]
******************
Handbook of Restorative Justice, by Gerry Johnstone and Daniel W. Van Ness. Willan Publishing, 2007. 650 pp. ISBN: 1-84392-150-2
This book provides a
comprehensive and authoritative account and analysis of restorative justice, one
of the most rapidly growing phenomena in the field of criminology and justice
studies. In the last decade it has become a central topic in debates about the
future of criminal justice. Hundreds of restorative justice schemes are being
developed around the world, and they are attracting more and more attention from
criminal justice academics, professionals and policy-makers.
The subject has reached a stage where a comprehensive, reliable and accessible
overview of the international phenomenon of restorative justice is required.
This book aims to meet this need, drawing together leading authorities on the
subject from around the world in order to:
· elucidate and discuss the key concepts and principles of restorative justice
· explain how the campaign for restorative justice arose and developed into the influential social movement it is today
· describe the variety of restorative justice practices, explains how they have developed in various places and contexts, and critically examines their rationales and effects
· identify and examines key tensions and issues within the restorative justice movement
· brings a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives to bear upon the understanding and assessment of restorative justice
******************
Issues in Green Criminology: Confronting Harms Against Environments, Humanity and Other Animals, by Piers Beirne and Nigel South. Willan Publishing. 317 pp. ISBN: 978-1-84392-219-3.
Issues in Green Criminology: confronting harms against
environments, humanity and other animals aims to provide, if not a
manifesto, then at least a significant resource for thinking about green
criminology, a rapidly developing field. It offers a set of specially written
introductions and a variety of current and new directions, wide-ranging in scope
and international in terms of coverage and contributors. It provides focused
discussions of current and cutting edge issues that will influence the emergence
of a coherent perspective on green issues. The contributors are drawn from the
leading thinkers in the field. [*450]
The twelve chapters of the book explore the myriad ways in which governments,
transnational corporations, military apparatuses and ordinary people going about
their everyday lives routinely harm environments, other animals and humanity.
The book will be essential reading not only for students taking courses in
colleges and universities but also for activists in the environmental and animal
rights movements.
Its concern is with an ever-expanding agenda – the whys, the hows and the whens
of the generation and control of the many aspects of harm to environments,
ecological systems and all species of animals, including humans. These harms
include, but are not limited to, exploitation, modes of discrimination and
disempowerment, degradation, abuse, exclusion, pain, injury, loss and suffering.
Straddling and intersecting these many forms of harm are key concepts for a
green criminology such as gender inequalities, racism, dominionism and
speciesism, classism, the north/south divide, the accountability of science, and
the ethics of global capitalist expansion.
Green criminology has the potential to provide not only a different way of
examining and making sense of various forms of crime and control responses (some
well known, others less so) but can also make explicable much wider connections
that are not generally well understood. As all societies face up to the need to
confront harms against environments, other animals and humanity, criminology
will have a major role to play. This book will be an essential part of this
process.
_____________________________________________________________Back to top
Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, by Kwame Anthony Appiah. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007. 196 pp. ISBN: 0-393-32933-X
Kwame Anthony Appiah’s landmark new work, featured on the cover of the New York Times Magazine, challenges the separatist doctrines espoused in books like Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations. Reviving the ancient philosophy of “cosmopolitanism,” a school of thought that dates to the Cynics of the fourth century BC, Appiah traces its influence on the ethical legacies of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Raised in Ghana, educated in England, and now a distinguished professor in the United States, Appiah promises to create a new era in which warring factions will finally put aside their supposed ideological differences and will recognize that the fundamental values held by all human beings will usher in a new era of global understanding. “Elegantly provocative. . . . Appiah is so sure-footed and gracious in his explorations that one feels engaged, hopeful, advocating his cosmopolitan ambitions.”—Edward Rothstein, New York Times
******************
Preemption: A Knife That Cuts Both Ways, by Alan Dershowitz. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007. 347 pp. ISBN: 0-393-32934-8. [*451]
In Preemption one of our nation’s foremost legal
scholars puts forward a controversial new theory on crime and punishment in the
postmodern world. Using the American government’s 2003 invasion of Iraq as a
starting point, Alan M. Dershowitz tracks our society’s increasing reliance on
preemptive action. In Preemption, which Judge Richard Posner of the U.S.
Court of Appeals calls “lucid, sober, courageous, and historically informed,”
Dershowitz has brought together all of his diverse and considerable talents and
experiences to confront the idea of preemptive action as it applies to some of
our most urgent political and moral dilemmas.
“In this provocative, illuminating, and lively book, [Dershowitz] demonstrates
that simple conclusions disserve democracy—and endanger our safety. Dershowitz
is right to call for a jurisprudence of preemption; he takes important steps
toward providing that jurisprudence.”—Cass Sunstein, Karl N. Llewellyn
Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Chicago.
******************
War and Liberty: An American Dilemma: 1790 to the Present, by Geoffrey R. Stone. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007. 224 pp. ISBN: ;0-393-33004-5.
An essential work on the challenges of preserving civil liberties in wartime by a preeminent scholar of constitutional law. Winner of eight national awards for his magisterial work Perilous Times, Geoffrey R. Stone has now created a condensed, updated, and more accessible history of civil liberties in wartime. With an in-depth examination of how our constitutional rights have fared during the presidency of George W. Bush, Stone reveals how the federal government has suppressed civil liberties in times of war throughout American history. A sparkling historical narrative, War and Liberty is the perfect book for any reader who wants to understand the current national debate and assess the state of our freedoms.
******************
Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny, by Amartya Sen. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007. 215 pp. ISBN: 0-393-32929-1
“One of the few world intellectuals on whom we may rely to
make sense out of our existential confusion.”—Nadine Gordimer
“Amartya Sen, one of the world’s great thinkers, tells us how to go about
building a more peaceful world. I hope the book will be read by all.”—Ted Turner
In this sweeping philosophical work, Amartya Sen proposes that the murderous
violence that has riven our society is driven as much by confusion as by
inescapable hatred. Challenging the reductionist division of people by race,
religion, and class, Sen presents an inspiring vision of a world that can be
made to move toward peace as firmly as it has spiraled in recent years toward
brutality and war.
“Amartya Sen brings to our generation a new and modern vision of how to obtain
peace.”—George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics [*452]
“Sen is now Asia’s preeminent philosopher of freedom. . . . This is an
indispensable book.”—Anwar Ibrahim, former deputy prime minister of Malaysia
Russell Sage Foundation
_____________________________________________________________Back to top
Immigrants and Boomers: Forging a New Social Contract for the Future of America, by Dowell Myers. Russell Sage Foundation, 2007. 356 pp. ISBN: 0-87154-696-1.
Many Americans regard the massive influx of immigrants over the past 30 years with great anxiety, fearing new burdens and unwanted changes to the nation’s ethnic, social, and economic identity. Virtually unnoticed in the contentious national debate over immigration is the even more significant demographic change about to occur as the first wave of the Baby Boom generation retires, slowly draining the workforce and straining the federal budget to the breaking point. In this forward-looking new book, Immigrants and Boomers, noted demographer Dowell Myers proposes a new way of thinking about these issues and argues that each of these two powerful demographic shifts may hold the keys to resolving the problems presented by the other.
Immigrants and Boomers looks to California as a bellwether state—where whites are no longer a majority of the population and represent just a third of residents under age twenty—to afford us a glimpse into the future impact of immigration on the rest of the nation. Myers opens with an examination of the roots of voter resistance to providing social services for immigrants. Drawing on detailed census data, Myers demonstrates that long-established immigrants have been far more successful than the public believes. Among the Latinos who make up the bulk of California’s immigrant population, those who have lived in California for over a decade show high levels of social mobility and use of English, and 50 percent of Latino immigrants become homeowners after 20 years. The impressive progress made by immigrant families suggests they have the potential to pick up the slack from aging boomers over the next two decades. The mass retirement of the boomers will leave critical shortages in the educated workforce, while shrinking ranks of middle-class tax payers and driving up entitlement expenditures. In addition, as retirees sell off their housing assets, the prospect of a generational collapse in housing prices looms. Myers suggests that it is in the boomers’ best interest to invest in the education and integration of immigrants and their children today in order to bolster the ranks of workers, taxpayers, and homeowners America they will depend on 10 and 20 years from now.
In this compelling, optimistic book, Myers calls for a new social contract between the older and younger generations, based on their mutual interests and the moral responsibility of each generation to provide for children and the elderly. Combining a rich scholarly perspective with keen insight into contemporary political dilemmas, [*453] Immigrants and Boomers creates a new framework for understanding the demographic challenges facing America and forging a national consensus to address them.