Vol. 5 No. 2 (February, 1995) pp. 62-64
AMERICAN LAW AND LEGAL SYSTEMS (Second Edition) by James V. Calvi
and Susan Coleman. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1992.
340 pp. paper $40.00.
Reviewed by John Gilliom, Department of Political Science, Ohio
University.
In a book seeking to balance the perspective of a lawyer with
that of a social scientist, Calvi and Coleman provide a
broad-brushed introductory overview of both the institutional
legal system and the central doctrinal elements of American law.
Without developing any specific thesis or argument, AMERICAN LAW
AND LEGAL SYSTEMS reviews the formal institutional processes and
practices involved in administering and interpreting the law and
then moves on to introduce the terms and concepts of the main
doctrinal areas of law. The work does not draw heavily upon
either contemporary empirical studies of law in practice,
comparative studies, or the variety of theoretical approaches to
criticizing and understanding legal reasoning and doctrine.
Rather, the authors stay close to the formal depictions of law's
terrain and practice, giving students an accessible accounting of
basic structures, concepts, and doctrinal histories.
Roughly the first third of the text introduces students to the
basic concepts and institutional structures of the American legal
system. The material covers the differing views on the role and
nature of law, provides an overview of the various types of law
(common law, criminal law, etc.), and gives a brief history of
the origins of the uniquely American forms of law. The chapter on
court organization introduces and outlines the federal court
system, discusses, in general terms, the role and nature of the
state courts, and explains the process of judicial appointment
and removal for both federal and state systems. For instructors
teaching a course more in the mainstream of institutional and
behavioral political science, the treatment of institutional
issues and politics is probably inadequate (for example, there
are several pages on the formal practices of the appointment
process, but no real discussion of the nitty gritty politics of
Bork and Thomas). In the longest chapter of the book,
"Procedures and Evidence" the authors give a detailed
review of the terms and concepts surrounding formal rules of
evidence and procedure in civil and criminal courts as well as a
brief introduction to alternative dispute resolution.
"Limitations", the fifth chapter, covers judicial
restraint, political questions doctrine, standing and mootness
issues, and other limits on court action.
The remainder and bulk of the book provides an overview of the
main doctrinal areas of American law. There are sixteen to
thirty-page chapters on Constitutional Law, Criminal Law,
Administrative Law, Torts, Contracts, Property, and Family Law.
Each of the chapters begins with a brief introduction to the
substantive issues covered in the relevant area and then moves to
define and discuss some of the major themes and concepts. As an
example, Chapter 6, Constitutional Law, opens with the concept of
judicial review and treats it origins in a six page discussion of
MARBURY V. MADISON. The authors next move to a discussion of
constitutional interpretation that briefly explains three
different positions, classified as original intention theories,
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interpretivist theories, and noninterpretivist theories. Finally,
under the "major doctrines" section, students are
exposed to succinct (3-5 page) explanations of federalism,
separation of powers doctrine, due process rulings,
incorporation, and equal protection (free speech doctrine is
absent, search and seizure doctrine is covered in the chapter on
Criminal Law). In each of these sections, central concepts are
defined and often illustrated through reference to a specific
case.
The other chapters in this section follow an outline essentially
similar to that of the Constitutional law section. Rather than
using a specific argument or major theoretical debate as the
organizing principle, each chapter moves through clear (and
generally well-written) explanations of the categories and terms
of legal analysis. In some ways the result is a heavily
annotated, thematically organized glossary of terminology,
concepts, and perennial themes; in this sense the book might work
very well as a support text which could supplement less
introductory works. There is a thorough glossary included in the
book and an appendix on legal research which introduces students
to legal citation, case location, and computer-based legal
research. A non-scientific exploration of the index found some
important concepts from the book absent (this may prove
particularly frustrating to students on the night before an
exam).
Although striving to balance the perspectives of the lawyer and
the political scientist, AMERICAN LAW AND LEGAL SYSTEMS is
particularly well-suited for a course which wants to offer the
lawyer's perspective -- it is thorough in its explanation of key
terms and legal concepts and will give students a brief
introduction to the main areas that they can expect to find in
law school curricula. While it makes no extensive use of the
actual texts of court opinions, it does explain and discuss a
wide variety of leading cases in the effort to explain and
elucidate central issues and concepts.
Instructors trying to offer a broad overview of law and politics
would find the book useful as part of a collection of readings,
in which this work could serve as the introduction to the
"formal" view of law, and later or parallel works could
take more of a "social science" orientation and fully
explore theoretical or empirical challenges to the formal view.
The book would be well-suited for this since the chapters are
short enough that two could be assigned for one night's reading
or one could be interspersed with other material. (On the other
hand, since students will have to pay roughly $40.00 for this 340
page paperback, instructors may well face a consumers' revolt if
there is much more course material to purchase.)
The book would, I think, be least useful for instructors working
from a social science or law and society perspective as is offers
relatively little in terms of quantitative or qualitative
empirical research on the many forms and permutations of law
"in practice". My students and I have our most lively
discussions when we work on problems regarding how the vision or
model of law as a set of fixed rules collides with the very
human, very political reality of law as a lived and constructed
element of social practice and culture. That sense of a lived
reality is underplayed in this text. There is also minimal
attention to the numerous important
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issues surrounding social movements, popular legal consciousness,
and law and social change; something which could be done within
the framework of the book by including sections on civil rights
or environmental law.
In sum, this book would be most useful for an introductory course
which seeks to familiarize students with the main outlines of a
"law school" approach to the law. I could see it being
particularly useful for a sophomore level class that was designed
to orient students in a pre-law program. It is especially strong
in providing clear and concise explanations of terms and concepts
and using hypothetical or actual cases to demonstrate them.
Instructors who want to introduce their students to comparativist
perspectives, empirical research on law and politics, or critical
perspectives on mainstream law will need to supplement this text
with another work.