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From: The Law and Politics Book Review
BOOK NOTICES: 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. |
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In this issue, books from:
Bioviolence: Preventing Biological Terror and Crime, Barry Kellman. Cambridge University Press, 2007. 362 pp. ISBN: 978-0-521-70969-9.
Bioviolence is the ultimate act of terror. The dangers are speedily accelerating, and too little is being done to prevent it. This book describes how diseases such as smallpox, anthrax, or ebola might be used for hostile purposes. It portrays developers of disease weapons and who may have them now, including rogue States and groups such as Al-Qaeda. It formulates a strategy for law enforcers, scientists, and public health officials to prevent intentional disease. Nations and international organizations, especially the United Nations, must coordinate their efforts to improve humanity’s security. Altogether the threat of bioviolence is an acute challenge for law and governance. This book explains how to meet that challenge.
Understanding and Mastering the Bluebook: A Guide for Students and Practitioners, by Linda J. Barris. Carolina Academic Press, 2007.136 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-365-0 This concise text is a survival manual especially designed to assist readers in navigating the complicated rules for legal citation found in The Bluebook. Effectively utilizing a simple building block approach for each source type, together with hundreds of easy-to-follow illustrations and explanations, the guide gives step-by-step instructions for building citations to the most common authorities cited by legal practitioners. [*878]
Comparison charts, illustrations, and bullet-point explanations allow users to quickly understand critical citation rules, while frequent tips, hints, and cautions alert students to common trouble spots. Every essential rule and sub-rule is illustrated and fully described in a user-friendly format. This highly accessible guide is an indispensable tool for anyone wanting to master Bluebook citation.
Georgia Legal Research, by Nancy Johnson, Elizabeth Adelman, and Nancy Adams. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 284 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-388-X. Georgia Legal Research is the first book of its kind devoted to the resources and strategies needed to research Georgia state law. Taking a process-oriented approach, the book explains research in Georgia cases, statutes, legislative history, constitutional law, and administrative law and legal ethics research. Additional chapters describe the research process, secondary sources and practical guides, online research and citators. Appendices include legal citation rules, bibliography of legal research texts, and a list of Georgia practice materials.
Georgia Legal Research was designed specifically for teaching legal research to first-year law students. Others who will find it helpful include practitioners, paralegals, librarians, college students, and even laypeople. It is clearly written, making even complex ideas accessible.
Outlines of the research process and short excerpts from Georgia resources make the book easy to use. Web addresses point researchers to the many sources for finding free Georgia legal material online.
Concise explanations of resources needed for researching federal law and the law of other states are provided throughout. Thus, Georgia Legal Research can be used as a stand-alone text or in conjunction with a research text concentrating on federal law.
Learning Civil Procedure, by David A. Difffurth. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 410 pp. ISBN: 0-89089-554-6. In this book, Dittfurth uses various means to explain the issues of jurisdiction and procedure that arise in federal courts. The book describes the pertinent rules of as they operate in the processing of a case, and also features hypotheticals, with answers, to enhance the reader's understanding of the role played by a particular rule. In the broad sense, procedure is best understood in relation to the substance of litigation — that is, to the causes of action, remedies, and defenses that are the heart of a lawsuit. These substantive elements are used to make more understandable the processes used in adjudication. [*879]
Civil procedure is also useful as an introduction to the information and and analytical skills prized in law school. This book gives beginning law students clear explanations of the various legal concepts they must master. An extensive glossary of legal terms is included that explains rather than merely defines those concepts.
The most confusing part of a law school initiation comes from the requirement that one learn how law is created and by and used in courts. A student's undergraduate education prepares him or her for simple research to find so-called "black-letter law." But a different skill — one that lawyers call legal reasoning, or, more precisely, legal advocacy — is required before a student understands how an advocate can distinguish an unfavorable legal authority and support the application of a more favorable one.
Own It: The Law and Business Guide (tm) to Launching a New Business through Innovation, Exclusivity and Relevance, by Jon M. Garon. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 408 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-391-X Own It provides the entrepreneur hands-on examples and explanations of how to build long-lasting value for the business through the use of trademarks, copyright, patents and other legal techniques.
Each chapter provides a roadmap to the mysterious but critical relationships between intellectual property and innovation. It offers advice on maximizing the opportunities for financing, planning, and competing in the e-commerce economy using common sense and the successful strategies of world-renown companies.
The book first focuses on the legal and business attributes of exclusivity and relevance to highlight how bust to build market share and maximize profitability. Chapters on relevance and innovation focus on how to identify the opportunities for changes in processes and markets. It contrasts market relevance from social relevance, explaining the strategies of creating and marketing must-have products. Using simple descriptions and numerous examples, the book explains how intellectual property assets can improve customer satisfaction and maximize profits.
Because the relationship between entrepreneur and investor is critical to success, the book shows how to align the interests of investors and employees with the entrepreneur. Together with nuts-and-bolts information of the start-up phase of business, this book provides the keys to building an economically stable business and a secure financial future.
The Intellectual Property Reference Guide carefully explains patent, copyright, trademark, publicity rights and similar tools in the language of the start-up business. The reference guide illustrates how to use intellectual property to reduce competition and increase profitability. By focusing on business entrepreneurs, the reference guide emphasizes what the business leader needs to know. [*880] Effective Lawyering: A Checklist Approach to Legal Writing and Oral Argument, by Austen L. Parrish and Dennis T. Yokoyama. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 180 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-348-0. This book is for law students and practitioners who want to learn, or be reminded of, the fundamentals of legal writing and oral advocacy. Effective Lawyering concisely describes useful, yet often neglected, writing techniques. The book has pithy discussions of:
Tennessee Legal Research, by Sibyl Marshall and Carol Parker. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 242 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-347-2.
Tennessee Legal Research is a practical and comprehensive book devoted to the resources and strategies needed to research Tennessee state law. Taking a process-oriented approach, the book explains research in Tennessee cases, statutes, legislative history, constitutional law, and administrative law. Additional chapters describe the research process, secondary sources and practical guides, and online research. An appendix provides a quick reference guide to finding Tennessee law in print, on the Internet, and on LexisNexis and Westlaw.
Tennessee Legal Research was designed specifically for teaching legal research to first-year law students. Others who will find it helpful include practitioners, paralegals, librarians, college students, and even laypeople. It is clearly written, making even complex ideas accessible.
Outlines of the research process and short excerpts from Tennessee resources make the book easy to use. Web addresses point researchers to the many sources for finding free Tennessee legal material online.
Concise explanations of resources needed for researching federal law and the law of other states are provided throughout. Thus, Tennessee Legal Research can be used as a stand-alone text or in conjunction with a research text concentrating on federal law.
Perspectives on the Uniform Commercial Code, Second Edition, by Douglas E. Litowitz. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 188 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-438-X. Now being published in a revised second edition, Perspectives on the Uniform Commercial Code remains the sole anthology of seminal readings on the history, jurisprudence, personalities, controversies, and current scholarship on the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). Intended as a supplemental teaching tool for law school courses on commercial law, this anthology is designed to pique the interests of law students by presenting the UCC as a living, experimental text with economic and political dimensions. The format – short and focused excerpts followed by a single discussion question – is specifically designed to hold students' attention and to generate classroom discussion. [*881]
The anthology begins with a useful introduction to the UCC, and then provides key readings on the history and drafting of the UCC, including selections from its principal drafters and its critics. The anthology has separate chapters on such topics as: how the UCC was enacted; the personality and vision of Karl Llewellyn; the jurisprudence of the UCC; how to interpret the official text and comments; debates surrounding the federalization of commercial law; whether the amendment process is flawed; the limits of property and commoditization; and a look at cutting-edge scholarship on the UCC.
Students and professors alike will find the anthology a wonderful complement to the standard materials assigned in commercial law classes.
A Guide to Biotechnology Law and Business, Robert A. Bohrer. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 362 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-087-2. This book is a guide to the “big picture” of biotechnology law and business, presenting and analyzing the issues that arise throughout the life cycle of the biotechnology product. The book focuses primarily on the pharmaceutical field, from university research through the development process and into the marketplace.
The aim of the book is to provide guidance to the biotechnology legal and business communities by providing a practical and integrated discussion of the many different topics that arise in developing biotechnology products. It is intended to be used by I.P. lawyers, FDA lawyers, business lawyers and biotech executives who want a concise introduction to the most fundamental issues in biotechnology law and business.
Missouri Legal Research, by Wanda Temm and Julie M. Cheslik. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 272 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-386-3. Missouri Legal Research was designed for teaching legal research to first-year law students, paralegals, and undergraduate students researching Missouri law. Missouri practitioners and others who need to be familiar with Missouri resources will also want this book in their library. Complex ideas and research processes are presented in a straight-forward manner. Outlines of the research process and short excerpts from Missouri and federal resources make the book easy to use. Web addresses point researchers to the many sources for finding free Missouri and federal legal material online.
Concise explanations of resources needed for researching federal law and the law of other states are provided throughout. Thus, Missouri Legal Research can be used by instructors as a stand-alone text or in conjunction with a research text concentrating on federal law.
Written by authors with decades of experience teaching first year law students legal research skills, Missouri Legal Research focuses on the sources of law (statutes, cases, rules and regulations, etc.) and exposes the reader to those sources in a print medium and then through both free access and fee-based online databases like Westlaw and LexisNexis. This book provides guidelines for how to make judgments about which medium to access and when to access it. For a practitioner, Missouri Legal Research provides a one-stop source, succinct in its presentation of all Missouri legal resources. A thorough, but concise, explanation of primary and secondary authority gives the researcher a reference to consult when researching resources that one only uses occasionally, such as Missouri and federal legislative history and administrative law. [*882]
Missouri Legal Research includes a thorough explanation of citation using either The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation or the ALWD Citation Manual: A Professional System of Citation. This book points out instances where Missouri practices may differ from the national citation manuals.
Oregon Legal Research, Second Edition, by Suzanne Rowe. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 264 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-405-3. Taking a process-oriented approach, Oregon Legal Research explains how to conduct research in Oregon cases, statutes, legislative history, constitutional law, and administrative law. Additional chapters describe the research process, secondary sources and practice guides, and updating research results. Print and online research techniques are integrated throughout the book. An appendix reviews citation to legal sources under Oregon court rules, the ALWD Manual, and the Bluebook.
Oregon Legal Research was designed specifically for teaching legal research to first-year law students. Others who will find it helpful include practitioners, paralegals, librarians, college students, and even laypeople. It is clearly written, making even complex ideas accessible.
Outlines of the research process and short excerpts from Oregon resources make the book easy to use. Web addresses point researchers to the many sources for finding free Oregon legal material online. Concise explanations of resources needed for researching federal law and the law of other states are provided throughout. Thus, Oregon Legal Research can be used as a stand-alone text or in conjunction with a research text concentrating on federal law.
The primary difference between this edition and the first is the greater integration of online resources. Each chapter now concentrates on the media most likely to be helpful for a particular resource. Thus, updating is presented almost exclusively through online citators, while secondary sources are still covered primarily in print. Recognizing that students are becoming more visual, this edition includes more sample pages and screen shots. Discussion of legal analysis is included as a crucial element in legal research, as in the first edition, but that discussion is still limited because the book’s main focus is the process of performing research.
California Claims Regulations, by Barry Zalma. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 282 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-315-4. The state of California compels all who are involved in the claims process — even if only tangentially — to be trained with regard to, and comply with, the Fair Claims Practices Regulations (Regulations) and the Integral Anti-Fraud Personnel Regulations (SIU Regulations). It is, therefore, necessary that those insurance people who are engaged in any way in the presentation, processing or negotiation of insurance claims in the state of California be familiar with Regulations imposed by the state of California on all insurers doing business in California. [*883] This book, and its appendices, will enable the insurers to effect compliance with the Regulations when training or assisting the claims personnel in their obligations to read and understand the Regulations. The Appendices include an outline for an insurance company staff member, trainer, or lawyer to use in providing a training class to all of the insurers integral anti-fraud personnel. Zalma provides insurers, and their staffs, the information needed to comply with the SIU Regulations and to offer the required training.
Alive and Kicking: Legal Advice...For Boomers!, by Kenney F. Hegland and Robert B. Fleming. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 286 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-322-7 If you are getting older (or hope to), this book is for you. It will save you and your family money, restless nights, and heartbreak. Do I really need a living will? What are living trusts and should I attend a “free seminar’? How can I protect myself from scams and identity theft? How can I care for my aged parents? What are “assisted living facilities” and what about nursing homes? How can I recognize elder abuse and what about guns in the home? How can I fight age discrimination? What will be my insurance needs? What are reverse mortgages, Roth IRAs, durable powers of attorney, and disgruntled heirs? Will I have to give up both driving and sex? Need I worry about estate taxes? Should I avoid Probate? Most important, how can I get my family (and myself) to discuss the real problems that will face us? Here they come, ready or not.
Not to worry. You don’t have to read the entire book. What you need to know right now is in the first four chapters. The rest can wait. This is a serious book about serious times, but, if you’re not up for an occasional joke, or poem, just put it back.
The Epistemological Foundations of Law, by Isaak I. Dore. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 990 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-387-1 This book differs from a standard jurisprudence text in that it examines law as a truth claim. Its major question is whether there are any eternal truths about the law, and, if so, whether they are knowable. Examples of questions discussed are: What is the correct foundation of law? Is it knowable? What is its source? What is the role of reason? Does reason exist apart from the “sources” of law, in the Cartesian tradition separating mind and body (res cogitans and res extensa)? What is the nature of the obligation to obey the law and how does it arise? What is the nature of the connection between law and morality? [*884] The first Western philosopher who explicitly asserted that law is a truth claim was Socrates. It is not surprising that other Western philosophers followed this path. This book traces the origins of this claim to some 500 years before Socrates walked the streets of Athens and then provides a compete historical profile over eight overlapping historical/philosophical periods: The pre-philosophical period, the presocratic period, the post-socratic period, the Roman period, the medieval/Christian period, the enlightenment period, the modern period and the postmodern period. These periods are intended to serve as analytical categories on which the organizational framework of the book rests. They also serve as evolutionary guideposts in an intellectual voyage, so that the reader gets an integrated picture of law not just as a social phenomenon but also as a truth claim, which, like all truth claims, can be critically evaluated.
Federal Tax Research, by Joni D. Larson and Daniel F. Sheaffer. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 394 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-200-X This book addresses the various forums in which the researcher may be immersed, from the legislative history of a statute to determining how to ask the government for documents not yet made available to the public. Along the way, the authors discuss the various types of tax-related court opinions, government documents, and law review and journal articles.
Considerable attention is given to both the authoritative weight of each document and how it can be found. Research in the international tax area, a complex and dynamic area of tax, is discussed in great detail. Finally, the authors provide strategies for organizing the information into a written document, whether it is a response to an information document request or a brief to be filed in Tax Court.
Throughout the pages of Federal Tax Research, examples of real-life situations, practice notes, research tips, and snippets of actual court opinions add breadth and life to the technical information. These illustrations of the practical application of the rules allow the researcher to become a more effective researcher, bridging the gap between research and the practice of law.
American Constitutional Law, 7th Edition, by Louis Fisher and David Adler. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 1,168 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-371-5. The only book that develops constitutional law in the comprehensive sense, American Constitutional Law not only contains the results of court decisions but also highlights the efforts of legislatures, executives, the states, and the general public. Available in two formats — a single, hardback volume or two paperback volumes — it covers all new developments in case law, congressional statutes, presidential policies, and initiatives undertaken by states under their own constitutions. [*885] Most constitutional law books focus only on case law and judicial pronouncements, but American Constitutional Law illustrates how both judicial and non-judicial forces shape constitutional law. Compared to other texts, this book offers more citations to earlier decisions, allowing the reader to research areas in greater depth and better understand the process of trial and error used to shape constitutional principles. A broad range of cases (not just landmark cases) is combined with nonjudicial contributions. Fisher and Adler also cover state involvement in constitutional law by offering examples of how states, by interpreting their own constitutions, may depart from Supreme Court doctrines. Readings include not only court cases, but presidential statements and congressional debates.
Basic Mortgage Law: Cases and Materials, Second Edition, by David S. Hill and Carol Brown. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 472 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-284-4 Revised and updated to 2006, the second edition of Basic Mortgage Law continues to be comparatively brief, straightforward, and traditional. This is a doctrinal casebook that can serve as a basic foundation for a 2- or 3-hour mortgage law course. Hill and Brown have deliberately chosen cases which contain generally accepted rules that have been correctly applied in order to give students a clearer understanding of a complex area of law. These include a number of older cases that are better written, more thoroughly reasoned, and are as relevant today as when handed down. Accompanying notes and questions are carefully designed to pique the interest of the students and encourage them to look at secondary sources to expand their knowledge.
Trends in World Trade: Essays in Honor of Sylvia Ostry, by Alan Alexandroff. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 266 pp. ISBN: 0-89089-747-6 This volume examines the critical issues facing the global trading system today. As the title suggests, Trends in World Trade honors one of the world’s great trade policy experts - Sylvia Ostry. Sylvia is recognized as one of the quintessential trade and investment experts whose career spans public and academic service in Canada. The issues addressed represent central questions in the development of the international economy. It covers, among other things, institutional concerns such as the adequacy of World Trade Organization governance and its growing judicialization. This book examines the consequences for the global economy of China's admittance to the WTO. It also examines the consequences of continuing system friction — one of Sylvia Ostry's many contributions to our understanding of global trade relations. The contributors tackle global trade challenges from transparency to the matter of coherence, and from agricultural subsidies to the challenges of global investment. Additionally, as part of Professor Raj Bhala's Studies on Globalization and Society, this volume looks at the impact of international trade, finance and investment on states and their societies. Students of trade, trade experts, practitioners, and trade officials will find this volume a must-read for a better understanding of the trends in the global trade regime.
Florida Civil Procedure: Cases and Materials, by Juan Ramirez. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 924 pp. ISBN: 978-1-59460-132-3 Florida Civil Procedure: Cases and Materials covers all procedural aspects of litigation, starting with pre-filing considerations, such as conditions precedent, and ending with a chapter on appellate practice. In addition to reproducing the major cases on Florida civil procedure, the casebook details the statutory provisions and the rules of procedure, comparing them to the federal rules of procedure. Ramirez intersperses the work with frequent notes and questions for further classroom discussion. [*886]
This new casebook provides a unique teaching tool for examining the issues relating to children charged with crime in the juvenile courts. It is an innovative blend of the analytical, conceptual, practical and ethical considerations arising in that context. The authors have drawn on their many years of experience teaching juvenile justice courses and representing delinquents in the juvenile courts of New York, California, and Texas, as well as on innovative scholarship in this area of the law. The book examines the history of the juvenile court system in America, the Supreme Court jurisprudence, the various stages of delinquency proceedings, the ethical dilemmas of representing minors, the status offender jurisdiction, the right to treatment in juvenile correctional facilities, waivers, determinate sentencing, blended and extended jurisdiction, and international and comparative law. The materials include cases, statutes, forms, ABA Standards, law review and related articles, and notes and questions.
Payment Systems, Banking, and Documentary Transactions: Problems, Cases, Comments, Second Edition, by Dellas W. Lee and Timothy R. Zinnecker. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 356 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-429-0
Environmental Enforcement: Cases and Materials, by Joel A. Mintz, Cliffor Rechtschaffen, and Robert Kuehn. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 398 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-033-3 Environmental Enforcement is the first casebook devoted exclusively to environmental enforcement issues. Perfect for a specialized course or seminar, or as a supplement to existing survey courses, the book provides in-depth coverage of this emerging and dynamic field. Although literally thousands of attorneys in government, private practice, and public interest organizations are involved in environmental enforcement in all or nearly all of their practice, this subject too often receives only cursory treatment in [*887] traditional texts. This book introduces future lawyers to the full range of legal issues and practical challenges they will face when handling environmental enforcement cases. The book begins with an examination of the theories underlying the various models of environmental enforcement and the appropriate roles of the federal and state governments in enforcement. It then contains chapters on government investigative authorities and administrative, civil, criminal, and citizen enforcement. There also is a lengthy chapter devoted to the specialized issues arising in Superfund enforcement. The book then examines the burgeoning area of compliance incentives and assistance programs, and also discusses alternative enforcement strategies, such as permit bars, public spotlighting techniques, and common law theories. Problem exercises appear throughout the book.
Criminal Law: Cases, Commentary and Questions, by Jose Felipe Anderson and Patricia Mell. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 696pp. ISBN: 0-89089-543-0.
Professor Jose Felipe Anderson, Director of the University of Baltimore's School of Law's Stephen L. Snyder Center for Litigation Skills and Professor Patricia Mell have created a criminal law case book that offers both traditional and cutting-edge cases, challenging hypotheticals, historical context, and practical perspectives. All of these features combine in a managable casebook designed to be completed in a one semester criminal law course. With material ranging from the criminal prosecution of Marcus Garvey for mail fraud to the Dr. Jack Kevorkian assisted-suicide trial to Watergate, the book will hold the interest of both student and professor.
Features include interesting cases designed to combine legal principles for effecient learning; both traditional coverage of familiar principles and cutting-edge insights into emerging trends; special attention to the U.S. Supreme Court's recent activity in state criminal law; hypothetical problems of varying length and complexity to maximize the instructor's teaching options; historical notes and commentary that place the cases into context; discussion of the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code; and practical perspectives for each section giving both defense and prosecution insights.
U.S. International Tax Planning and Policy: Including Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions, by Samuel C. Thompson. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 684 pp. ISBN: 0-89089-497-3
This book addresses the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code that govern the U.S. operations of foreign persons (i.e., inbound transactions) and the foreign operations of U.S. persons (i.e., outbound transactions). Part I provides a general introduction and introduces the impact of tax treaties; Part II focuses on the taxation of inbound transactions; Part III focuses on outbound transactions; and Part IV focuses on cross-border mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. The last sections of most chapters briefly discuss the manner in which South Africa, which has recently reformed its international tax system, addresses the issues presented in the chapter. From a tax planning standpoint, the U.S. tax advisor should have a basic understanding of the interface between the U.S. and foreign tax system involved in the transaction, and these discussions illustrate the interface between two sophisticated systems. [*888]
Legal Rights and Interests in the Workplace, by Clyde W. Summers, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, and Alan Hyde. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 984 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-095-3
This book provides teaching materials for a course merging two areas of law governing the labor market — collective labor law and individual employment law — which have historically been taught as separate courses. These materials represent an effort to interrelate or tie together these two bodies of law into a common framework. The broad premise of the book is that historically and functionally the predominant purpose of labor law has been to protect workers from market forces in the individual labor market. The articulate assumption is that individual bargaining in the labor market will lead to socially undesirable results and that the law here, as in many other areas, should come to the aid of the weaker party. It may do this in two ways: first, employees may be protected by direct regulation of terms and conditions of employment with laws such as minimum wage laws, health and safety laws and prohibitions against discrimination; second, employees may obtain a measure of protection by restructuring the labor market so as to replace individual bargaining with collective bargaining in the belief that the collective labor market will produce more acceptable social results.
Federal Income Tax: A Problem Solving Approach: Cases and Materials, by Toni Robinson and Mary Ferrari. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 880 pp. ISBN: 0-89089-900-2
Federal Income Tax is organized around the four questions necessary to the construction of a tax system: what is the proper tax base; what is the proper rate; what is the proper time period; and who is the proper taxpayer. The book provides students with an introduction to the basic income taxing formula of the Internal Revenue Code and the methods applicable to working with complex statutory materials without overwhelming them with too many Code sections. The text adopts a learning approach that guides students through a systematic process of questioning, enabling them to learn the material in a step-by-step way, facilitating better understanding and synthesis.
Law and Biotechnology: Cases and Materials, by Victoria Sutton. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 502 pp. ISBN: 0-89089-191-5
This casebook addresses a broad range of issues in many areas of law which are affected by recent advances in biotechnology. The book seeks to examine the law and the underlying science and policy of biotechnology in addressing these issues. This interdisciplinary book will include biotechnology issues in biologically engineered plants and foods, genetically engineered organisms, cloning, DNA, the Human Genome Project, patenting, property law, criminal law, evidence, and international aspects of law and biotechnology. The governmental management of these issues through the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch and the Judicial Branch, as well as the private sector interaction, is examined. Several appendices are included in the casebook, which are useful reference tools for the student or the practitioner. [*889]
The Fundamentals of Federal Taxation, by John A. Miller and Jeffrey A. Maine. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 618 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-049-X
The Fundamentals of Federal Taxation is a problem-based, transaction-oriented treatment of the basics of federal taxation. It features a balanced approach toward tax planning and tax policy and is structured for easy accessibility through the use of forty-one chapters, each of which can readily be covered in one, or occasionally two, class sessions.
Property and Environment: Old and New Remedies to Protect Natural Resources in the European Context, by Barbara Pozzo. Carolina Academic Press, 2007. 406 pp. ISBN: 1-59460-332-4. At the Common Core meeting of 1995 a “Working Agenda” was presented to the “Group on Property” with the aim of facing the problem of individualizing the common core of European Private Law in the field of property as related to the environment.
It was pointed out that this is actually a field where not only private law, but also many other components play a very important role. As the purpose of the Trento project is basically one of private law, the aim of the Working Agenda and of the following Questionnaire was to focus on the particular question: “Who owns the environment?” On this basis, the “Group on Property”, agreed to give the author the task, as co-ordinator of the project on “Property and Environment”, of drafting the questionnaire applying the methodology decided in Trento.
The first version of the questionnaire was presented at the Common Core meeting of 1996 and revised after a discussion with the national reporters and the chairman of the session “Property”, Professor Antonio Gambaro. The revised version was then circulated to environmental law experts from different European countries.
This volume contains case studies from thirteen European jurisdictions, representing civil law countries, common law countries and Nordic countries in a balanced way. It is divided in two main parts: the first one contains three introductory chapters where the authors try to sketch out the general scenario in an historical and comparative law perspective; the second one includes, after a short description of the working agenda and the questionnaire, the case studies of the thirteen European jurisdictions. [*890]
A Primer in The Politics of Justice, Second Edition, by Nancy E. Marion. Criminal Justice Press, 2007. 257 pp. ISBN: 1-881798-79-8. A host of new classroom-friendly features have been added to the greatly expanded second edition of this concise, lively overview of the politics of criminal justice. Seamlessly integrating concepts and findings from the disciplines of political science and criminology, the new edition offers chapters on: campaigns and elections – including summaries of key crime-related issues raised in each presidential election campaign since the 1960s; Responses to the recent rise of Internet-related crime provide real-world examples of the political processes described in each chapter. Each chapter provides readers with sets of key concepts and review questions. An instructor’s manual is available.
The New Technology of Crime, Law and Social Control, by James M. Byrne and Donald J. Rebovich. Criminal Justice Press, 2007. 386 pp. ISBN: 1-881798-73-9. A comprehensive overview of the effects of new technology on criminality, crime prevention, and the criminal justice system is presented in this new textbook/reader. Fourteen chapters explore five critical issues: • How will new technological innovations affect both crime prevention and crime control policies toward offenders and victims? • Will criminal justice personnel be replaced by new hardware or software? • Will technology lead to increased privatization of traditional justice functions? • Is there research evidence that technological innovations have improved the criminal justice system’s response to crime? • What is the link between technology and various forms of criminal behavior?
Neither Liberty nor Safety: Fear, Ideology, and the Growth of the Government, by Robert Higgs. The Independent Institute, 2007. 205 pp. ISBN: 978-1-59813-012-6 “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety,” wrote Benjamin Franklin. Attempting to gain security by sacrificing liberty is also a foolish action, some would add, because it only increases the potential for harm. In Neither Liberty nor Safety: Fear, Ideology, and the Growth of Government, economist and historian Robert Higgs illustrates the false trade-off between freedom and security by showing how the U.S. government’s economic and military interventions reduced the civil and economic liberties, prosperity, and genuine security of Americans in the 20th century. Extending the theme of Higgs’s earlier books, Neither Liberty nor Safety stresses the role of misguided ideas in the expansion of government power at the expense of individual liberty. Higgs illuminates not only many underappreciated aspects of the Great Depression, the two world wars, and the postwar era, but also the government’s manipulation of public opinion and the role that ideologies play in influencing political outcomes and economic performance. [*892]
Fear, Falsehoods, and Ideological Change
After a brief introduction, in which he explains the decades-long development of his research agenda, Higgs takes up a fundamental issue pertaining to freedom and security in chapter 1, “Fear: The Foundation of Every Government’s Power.” To achieve compliance with their edicts, governments ultimately rely on their police power—i.e., the legal power to summon, arrest, detain, fine, regulate, and tax. Exclusive reliance on force, however, is crude and costly. Hence, according to Higgs, governments have developed more efficient methods to ease their domination. In olden times, court priests promoted a theology of obedience. Nowadays, intellectuals and politicians mount scaremongering campaigns, exaggerate miscellaneous “crises,” and propose “solutions” that enhance government power at the expense of individual liberty.
Besides ignoring the role of fear in the growth and maintenance of government, many scholars have embraced gross oversimplifications that have misguided their research, Higgs argues in chapter 2, “Eighteen Problematic Propositions in the Analysis of the Growth of Government.” Economists, for example, sometimes use a single measure (e.g., government’s share of GDP) as a proxy for the size of government and explain changes in this proxy by relating it to a single, often amorphous, cause (e.g., “public demand”), which they assume influences outcomes in the same way at all times and places. Such approaches ignore not only hard-to-quantify causal factors, but also the institutional conditions that can alter the growth rate of government. Traditional historical research— asking who did what, when, why—is more revealing than exclusive reliance on statistics or mathematical modeling.
Higgs examines another overlooked piece of the puzzle in chapter 3, “The Complex Course of Ideological Change.” Given ideology’s influential role and ubiquity (virtually everyone has one), it is unfortunate that many social scientists have given it short shrift. An ideology, according to Higgs, helps people to economize in thinking about politicoeconomic causes and effects; provides a framework for evaluating whether actions and outcomes are good or bad; suggests a course of political action; and helps to shape one’s personal identity and group affiliations. Higgs explains how ideologies spread and critiques several theories of ideological change. [*893]
Although Higgs devoted much of his book Crisis and Leviathan (1987) to considerations of ideology, some reviewers accused him of arguing that crises had promoted the growth of government mechanically, regardless of people’s ideas and motives. Others thought he had claimed that the growth of government is always and everywhere the result of a crisis. Higgs dispels such misconceptions in chapter 4, “Crisis and Leviathan: Review and Response” (which also includes historian Burton Folsom’s review of the earlier book). Had the country’s opinion leaders not fallen under the sway of Progressivism, which espoused regulations to constrain big business, fostered cartels, and favored the centralization of government power, the 20th century’s challenges might have elicited policies with very different consequences for the growth of American government.
The Growth of Government
The rise of Progressivism and the decline of laissez-faire and small-government republicanism established the context for the pivotal events of 1914-29, which set the stage for both the Great Depression and the federal government’s counterproductive responses to it, Higgs explains in chapter 5, “What Got Us Into and Out of the Great Depression.” World War I destroyed the classical gold standard and led to the adoption of a monetary system that facilitated the unsustainable economic boom of the Roaring Twenties. In addition, wartime economic planning presaged the New Deal programs that prolonged the Depression.
“Because the government’s economic rescue program worked at cross-purposes or interfered with the successful operation of the private competitive economy, they exacerbated the downturn between 1929 and 1933, making it deeper than it otherwise would have been, and slowed the economy’s recovery after 1933, so that even when the government began to shift the economy onto a war footing in mid-1940, full recovery had not yet been attained,” writes Higgs. “In short, the government’s cures made the disease much worse and slowed the patient’s natural recovery.” Prosperity returned, not during World War II, but afterward, as massive amounts of labor and capital returned to civilian production and investors’ confidence in the security of their private-property rights was restored.
Although the United States became wealthier in the decades after the war, the political economy never returned to the old, limited-government pattern. The war had institutionalized a symbiotic relationship between the military, the arms industries, and Congress, which sucked a substantial amount of resources from taxpayers. More important, collectivism increasingly scored small victories over individualism in public life, Higgs argues in chapter 6, “The United States Won the World Wars, but Americans Lost.” The legislative and executive branches asserted authority to regulate more activities in the name of economic and military security. The Supreme Court, having approved the suppression of critics of World War I and refused to block the internment of more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry during World War II, was no longer a reliable friend of liberty.
“Perhaps even more consequential than the war’s constitutional legacies were its effects on the country’s dominant ideology,” writes Higgs. “As World War I had done, only more so, the Big One produced a prominent move toward acquiescence in and often affirmative demand for collectivism. Not only did the masses now look more expectantly to the federal government for salvation from life’s troubles, large and small, but the leadership of the business class also came finally to make a complete peace with the government it had long seen as a nuisance and a menace.” [*894]
Higgs documents many of the new roles the U.S. government assumed after the war in chapter 7, “Government and the Economy in the United States since World War II.” The Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and U.S. entry into NATO coincided with a greatly enlarged peacetime military budget and a new, leading role for the country in international affairs. Preparation for war occurred continuously, and crises erupted episodically, convincing many people that their interests were identical to those of the bipartisan national-security elite. The power of the congressional component of the military-industrial-congressional complex also increased, adding a new twist to political vote buying.
The welfare state also played the log-rolling game. “During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s,” Higgs writes, “members of Congress turned Social Security into a fabulous vote-buying scheme, repeatedly raising the amounts of existing benefits, expanding the types of benefits (for example, adding disability insurance in 1956), and easing the eligibility requirements for receiving benefits.” Higgs describes not only many social-welfare statutes, but also several kinds of business subsidies and restrictions that undergirded an elaborate, generous system of corporate welfare and regulatory protectionism— payoffs that further entrenched an ideology first associated with the Progressive movement.
The acceleration of transfer payments (including subsidies) is not confined to the United States, Higgs explains in chapter 8, “The Ongoing Growth of Government in the Economically Advanced Countries.” He maintains that some leading analysts have incorrectly argued that the growth of government in Europe and elsewhere has slowed or even stopped since the early 1980s, a mistake that arises from their focus on misleading measures such as government’s share of GDP or employment. Higgs then examines two distinct causal factors of government growth—structural trends and “trigger” events—as well as their interaction. Finally, he contrasts his ideas on the mixed economy with those of Ludwig von Mises and Sanford Ikeda, explaining why he believes the economically advanced countries will continue to oscillate between highly controlled and not-quite-so-highly controlled and are unlikely to adopt either laissez-faire or complete socialism during the next several decades.
Tabloid Justice: Criminal Justice in and Age of Media Frenzy, Second Edition, by Richard L. Fox, Robert W. Van Sickel, and Thomas L. Steiger. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007. 251 pp. ISBN: 978-1-58826-532-6 This new edition of Tabloid Justice reveals that, although the media focus on high-profile criminal trials is thought by many to have diminished in the years since the September 11 terrorist attacks, the polarized, partisan coverage of these trials has in fact continued unabated. The authors investigate the profoundly negative impact of the media's coverage of the criminal justice system—coverage that frequently highlights and aggravates the deepest divisions in US society. [*895]
Features of the new edition include results of a recent national poll, richer demographic data, and discussion of the Internet's rising significance. Thorough analysis of recent tabloid cases (featuring Kobe Bryant, Michael Jackson, Terri Schiavo, Scott Peterson, and Martha Stewart) provides a contemporary window on the tactics of a media driven by profit to the detriment of political and legal principles.
New York University Press
The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers, by Jane Guskin and David L. Wilson. NYU Press, 2007. 176 pp. ISBN: 978-1-58367-155-9. In the Spring of 2006, hundred of thousands of immigrants and supporters organized in cities across the United States to protest recent changes to immigration policy. Those protests, labeled "A Day Without and Immigrant,"
Oxford University Press
The Regulatory and Administrative State: Materials, Cases, Comments, by Lisa Heinzerling and Mark V. Tushnet. Oxford University Press, 2007. 872 pp. ISBN: 0195189310
Public law is a significant part of 21st century legal practice and 21st century and lawyers need the skills including the ability to read and understand statutes associated with the modern regulatory state. The Regulatory and Administrative State is the first set of materials responsive to this need, introducing students to the reasons for regulation, the ways in which regulation can go awry, the choice of legal institutions for regulation, the choice of regulatory instruments, and the art of statutory interpretation.
American Law and Legal Systems, Sixth Edition, by James V. Calvi and Susan Coleman. Prentice Hall, 2007. 396 pp. 0-13-615553-7.
This text examines the philosophy of law within a political, social, and economic framework. Readers are introduced to operative legal concepts, everyday law practices, substantive procedures, and the intricacies of the American legal system. Eliminating confusing legalese, the authors skillfully explain the basics–from how a lawsuit is filed to the final appeal–and review English legal roots.
The New Ministry of Justice: An Introduction, by Bryan Gibson. Waterside Press, 2007. 160 pp. ISBN: 978-1-904380-35-1
These are the first and as of now only books to describe the post 2007 UK systems of justice and law enforcement. They are also dynamic and ahead of any criminology text in assessing the type and impact of key institutional changes. Anyone purporting to write or research on UK or comparative matters of crime and punishment cannot really afford to be without them without appearing to be out of date. They also contain a full historical and developmental context.
The New Home Office: An Introduction, by Bryan Gibson. Waterside Press, 2007. 172 pp. ISBN: 978-1-904380-36-8.
This timely publication concerning fundamental changes to Constitutional arrangements in the UK outlines the new Home Office following the 'splitting off' of a variety of its responsibilities as announced by the UK Government in May 2007. An ideal outline for busy practitioners or members of the general public alike. The New Home Office is written in the style of the acclaimed Waterside Press Introductory Series and with publication Septemer 2007. [*897]
This book is concerned to explore the changing role of the Parole Board across the range of its responsibilities, including the prediction of risk and deciding on the release (or continued detention) of the growing number of recalled prisoners and of those subject to indeterminate sentences. In doing so it aims to rectify the lack of attention that has been given – by lawyers, academics and practitioners – to ‘back door sentencing’ (where the real length of a sentence is decided by those who take the decision to release) compared to ‘front door sentencing' (decisions taken by judges or magistrates in court).
Dictionary of Probation and Offender Management, by Rob Canton and David Hancock. Willan Publishing, 2007. 397 pp. ISBN: 978-1-84392-289-6.
Contemporary probation practice is developing rapidly and is become increasingly professionalized. Probation officers are typically described now as offender managers, and the creation of NOMS (National Offender Management Service) has broadened the remit of the Probation Service. As well as bringing an increased emphasis on skills and qualifications it has also introduced a new set of ideas and concepts into the established probation lexicon – including institutional, legal, political and theoretical terms of its own as well as importing concepts from the disciplines of sociology, criminology and psychology. This Dictionary is the essential reference book. This Dictionary is part a new series of Dictionaries covering key aspects of criminal justice and the criminal justice system and designed to meet the needs of both students and practitioners.
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Department of Government & Politics, University of Maryland