Recently in Acquisitions Category

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in September 2009. The list is on the Library's home page.

ACQlist 2009-09F.pdf

In addition, here are a few highlighted titles of particular interest:

Queer mobilizations : LGBT activists confront the law / edited by Scott Barclay, Mary Bernstein, and Anna-Maria Marshall. New York : New York University Press, c2009.
Call number: KF4754.5 .Q84 2009

Publisher's Description: Fighting for marriage and family rights; protection from discrimination in employment, education, and housing; criminal law reform; economic justice; and health care reform: the LGBT movement is engaged in some of the most important cultural and political battles of our times. Seeking to reshape many of our basic social institutions, the LBGT movement's legal, political, and cultural campaigns reflect the complex visions, strategies, and rhetoric of the individuals and groups knocking at the law's door.

The original essays in this volume bring social movement scholarship and legal analysis together, enriching our understanding of social movements, LGBT politics and organizing, legal studies, and public policy. Moreover, they highlight the struggle to make the law relevant and responsive to the LGBT community. Ultimately, Queer Mobilizations examines how the LGBT movement's engagement with the law shapes the very meanings of sexuality, sex, gender, privacy, discrimination, and family in law and society.

Hansen, Victor M., 1962- The case for Congress : separation of powers and the War on Terror / Victor M. Hansen, Lawrence Friedman. Farnham, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, c2009.
Call number: KF4565 .H36 2009

Publisher's Description: The Case for Congress: Separation of Powers and the War on Terror examines the constitutional relationship between Congress and the President in the post-September 11 world, arguing that Congress should exercise its legitimate authority in guiding United States policy. While many commentators have focused on the extent of the President's national security and foreign affairs authority, both domestically and abroad, this title focuses on the constitutional authority of Congress to serve as a check on executive power. As a national consensus has developed around the notion that the Bush administration made grave errors in its policy decisions, a reminder of the leading role that Congress can play in those decisions is particularly appropriate.

Unlike scholarly work devoted either to detailing or criticizing the Bush administration's policy decisions, this accessible and balanced book focuses on the policies themselves, and on the way in which Congress can influence those policies for the better. The authors further offer specific and useful recommendations for legislative measures that may correct existing policy deficiencies and promote sounder decision-making in the area of national security and foreign affairs.

Bergelson, Vera. Victims' rights and victims' wrongs : comparative liability in criminal law / Vera Bergelson. Stanford, Calif. : Stanford Law Books, c2009.
Call number: KF9235 .B47 2009

Publisher's Description: "Don't blame the victim" is a cornerstone maxim of Anglo-American jurisprudence, but should the law generally ignore a victim's behavior in determining a defendant's liability? Victims' Rights and Victims' Wrongs criticizes the current criminal law approach and outlines a more fair, coherent, and efficient set of rules to recognize that victims sometimes co-author their own losses or injuries.

Evaluating a number of controversial cases involving euthanasia, sadomasochism, date rape, battered wives, and "innocent" aggressors, Vera Bergelson builds a theoretical foundation for reform. Her approach to comparative criminal liability takes into account the actions of both the perpetrator and the victim and offers a unitary explanation for consent, self-defense, and provocation. This innovative book supplies a practical and coherent mechanism for evaluating the impact of a victim's conduct on a perpetrator's liability in a variety of circumstances, including those that are now artificially excluded from comparative analysis.

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in August 2009. The list is on the Library's home page.

August 2009 Acquisitions

In addition, here are a few highlighted titles of particular interest:

Dignam, Alan J. and Michael Galanis. The globalization of corporate governance. Farnham, Surrey, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, c2009.
Call number: K1327 .D54 2009

Publisher's Description:
The process of economic globalization, as product and capital markets have become increasingly integrated since WWII, has placed huge, and it is argued by some, irresistible pressures on the world's 'insider' stakeholder oriented corporate governance systems. Insider corporate governance systems in countries such as Germany, so the argument goes, should converge or be transformed by global product and capital market pressures to the 'superior' shareholder oriented 'outsider' corporate governance model prevalent in the UK and the US. What these pressures from globalization are, how they manifest themselves, whether they are likely to cause such a convergence/ transformation and whether these pressures will continue, lie at the heart of the exploration in this volume. The Globalization of Corporate Governance provides a detailed analysis of the evolution of the key corporate governance systems in the UK, the US and Germany from the perspective of the development of economic globalization. As such it is a valuable resource for those interested in how economic and legal reforms interact to produce change within corporate governance systems.

Billias, George Athan. American constitutionalism heard round the world, 1776-1989 : a global perspective. New York : New York University Press, c2009.
Call number: KF4541 .B56 2009

Publisher's Description:
American constitutionalism represents this country's greatest gift to human freedom, yet its story remains largely untold. For over two hundred years, its ideals, ideas, and institutions influenced different peoples in different lands at different times. American constitutionalism and the revolutionary republican documents on which it is based affected countless countries by helping them develop their own constitutional democracies. Western constitutionalism--of which America was a part along with Britain and France--reached a major turning point in global history in 1989, when the forces of democracy exceeded the forces of autocracy for the first time.

Historian George Athan Billias traces the spread of American constitutionalism--from Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean region, to Asia and Africa--beginning chronologically with the American Revolution and the fateful "shot heard round the world" and ending with the conclusion of the Cold War in 1989. The American model contributed significantly by spearheading the drive to greater democracy throughout the Western world, and Billias's landmark study tells a story that will change the way readers view the important role American constitutionalism played during this era.

Baber, Walter F. and Robert V. Bartlett. Global democracy and sustainable jurisprudence : deliberative environmental law. Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c2009.
Call number: K3585 .B33 2009

Publisher's Description:
In Global Democracy and Sustainable Jurisprudence, Walter Baber and Robert Bartlett explore the necessary characteristics of a meaningful global jurisprudence, a jurisprudence that would underpin international environmental law. Arguing that theories of political deliberation offer useful insights into the current "democratic deficit" in international law, and using this insight as a way to approach the problem of global environmental protection, they offer both a theoretical foundation and a realistic deliberative mechanism for creating effective transnational common law for the environment. Their argument links elements not typically associated: abstract democratic theory and a practical form of deliberative democracy; the legitimacy-imparting value of deliberative democracy and the possibility of legislating through adjudication; common law jurisprudence and the development of transnational environmental law; and conceptual thinking that draws on Deweyan pragmatism, Rawlsian contractarianism, Habermasian critical theory, and the full liberalism of Bohman, Gutmann, and Thompson.

Baber and Bartlett offer a democratic method for creating, interpreting, and implementing international environmental norms that involves citizens and bypasses states--an innovation that can be replicated and deployed across a range of policy areas. Transnational environmental consensus would develop through a novel model of juristic democracy that would generate legitimate international environmental law based on processes of hypothetical rule making by citizen juries. This method would translate global environmental norms into international law--law that, unlike all current international law, would be recognized as both fact and norm because of its inherent democratic legitimacy.

Boyle, Kevin, ed. New institutions for human rights protection Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009.
Call number: K3240 .N495 2009

Publisher's Description:
This book presents a multi-faceted approach to one of the most crucial challenges facing Human Rights institutions today - the implementation gap that exists between human rights norms and their enforcement by States. Comprising contributions from renowned international scholars in the field of human rights, New Institutions for Human Rights Protection examines how the human rights commitments entered into by States might be translated more effectively into protection for individuals in practice and the crucial role that human rights institutions, at both a national and international level, have to play in this endeavor.

Focusing on recent developments in respect to institutions such as the UN Human Rights Council and the EU's Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), these essays present a thorough account of the challenges and objectives facing the international community today with respect to human rights. From an account of the origins and aims of the UN Human Rights Council to its potential conflict with the missions of other Treaty bodies and from an observation on the role of institutions in the field of racism and discrimination to the potency of human rights norms and institutions to uphold minority interests, this volume offers original and diverse perspectives on the role of fledgling human rights institutions.

Litigating animal law disputes / Joan Schaffner and Julie Fershtman, editors.
Chicago : American Bar Association, c2009. Call number: KF390.5.A5 L58 2009

Publisher's Description:
Animal law is an emerging field that encompasses a variety of legal disciplines. Today more and more lawyers are entering into this field or finding they have cases that deal with animal law. This comprehensive guide is for lawyers who may be unfamiliar with the various laws in the field of animal law and require a basic guide to handling these cases.

The book covers every major aspect of private civil and criminal litigation of animal law disputes in the areas of tort, contract, property, insurance, and criminal law. In the fifteen chapters of this book, you'll find valuable information and cases dealing with topics like personal injury and negligence, disputes over animal possession; wills and trusts involving animals; veterinary malpractice; insurance litigation; federal cases and Constitutional rights; animal ownership and land use rights; criminal cases; and more. There is even a chapter covering practical matters for lawyers handling animal cases, including fee agreements, discovery techniques, preparing your client, settlements and collecting judgments. The book also provides sample litigation documents, such as pleadings, discovery materials, expert information, and more. It's the complete resource for any lawyer who, sooner or later, will deal with a case of animal law.

Bartell, Laura B. A guide to the judicial management of bankruptcy mega-cases
Washington, DC : Federal Judicial Center, 2009. Call number: US Documents JU 13.8:J 88/2009

Description:
(update of the 2007 version incorporating the December 2007 bankruptcy rules amendments)
Building on the 1992 first edition, this guide pools the knowledge of bankruptcy judges and clerks of court experienced in handling mega-cases in a written resources for others. It describes the general time line of a mega-case, issues that are likely to arise, and how other judges have approached those issues. The revised guide reflects management strategies currently set by statute, case law, local rules and general orders, and employed by individual judges. It expands coverage of topics that have gained prominence since the guide was first published. Exhibits discussed in the guide including sample procedures and guidelines, orders, and other materials can be downloaded online. (Note: the Exhibits are only available online and are not included in the published guide.) Link to the Website

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in July 2009. The list is on the Library's home page.

July Acquisitions

In addition, here are a few highlighted titles of particular interest:

Mokhtari, Shadi. After Abu Ghraib : exploring human rights in America and the Middle East.
Cambridge [UK] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009. Call number: K3249 .M65 2009

Publisher's Description:
This book traverses three pivotal human rights struggles of the post-September 11th era: the American human rights campaign to challenge the Bush administration's "War on Terror" torture and detention policies, Middle Eastern efforts to challenge American human rights practices (reversing the traditional West to East flow of human rights mobilizations and discourses), and Middle Eastern attempts to challenge their own leaders' human rights violations in light of American interventions. This book presents snapshots of human rights being appropriated, promoted, claimed, reclaimed, and contested within and between the American and Middle Eastern contexts. The inquiry has three facets: First, it explores intersections between human rights norms and power as they unfold in the era. Second, it lays out the layers of the era's American and Middle Eastern encounter on the human rights plane. Finally, it draws out the era's key lessons for moving the human rights project forward.

Pyle, Christopher H. Getting away with torture : secret government, war crimes, and the rule of law.
Washington, D.C. : Potomac Books, c2009. Call number: HV8599.U6 P95 2009

Publisher's Description:
That American forces should torture prisoners in their "war" on terror is disturbing, but more shocking still is that the highest officials of the Bush-Cheney administration planned, authorized, encouraged, and concealed these war crimes. When the Supreme Court ruled that the officials were bound by the Geneva Conventions, a Republican Congress responded by granting amnesty to all responsible, from lowly interrogators to the president, while conservative judges erected a wall of secrecy to protect them even from civil liability. Meanwhile, timid Democrats have shown little stomach for repealing the amnesty law and bringing those responsible to justice.

Many Americans, including those who endorsed torture to find "ticking bombs" that never were, are now embarrassed by credible reports of CIA kidnappings for purposes of torture, secret prisons into which prisoners have disappeared without a trace, and rigged tribunals to convict al Qaeda's criminals on evidence obtained by torture. But the problem is not just embarrassment; it is the widespread acceptance of unaccountable, secret government that now threatens to destroy the very foundations of constitutional government. The moral standing of the United States will not be restored, Christopher Pyle argues, until a concerted effort is made to bring our secret government under the rule of law.

Strauss, Michael John. The leasing of Guantanamo Bay.
Westport, Conn. : Praeger Security International, 2009. Call number: KZ4129 .S77 2009

Publisher's Description:
Post-2002 events at the U.S. naval facility at Guantanamo Bay have generated a spate of books on its use as a detention center in the U.S. fight against terrorism. Yet the crucial enabling factor-the lease that gave the U.S. control over the territory in Cuba-has till now escaped any but cursory consideration. The Leasing of Guantanamo Bay explains just how Guantanamo Bay came to be a leased territory where the U.S. has no sovereignty and Cuba has no jurisdiction. This is the first definitive account of the details and workings of the unusual and problematic state-to-state leasing arrangement that is the essential but murky foundation for all the ongoing controversies about Guantanamo Bay's role in U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, charges of U.S. human rights violations, and U.S.-Cuban relations.

The Leasing of Guantanamo Bay provides an overview of territorial leasing between states and shows how it challenges, compromises, and complicates established notions of sovereignty and jurisdiction. Strauss unfolds the history of the Guantanamo Bay, recounting how the U.S. has deviated widely from the original terms of the lease yet never been legally challenged by Cuba, owing to the strong state-weak state dynamics. The lease is a hodge-podge of three U.S.-Cuba agreements full of discrepancies and uncorrected errors. Cuba's failure to cash the annual rent checks of the U.S. has legal implications not only for the future of Guantanamo Bay but of the Westphalian system of states. Compiled for the first time in one place are the verbatim texts of all the key documents relevant to the Guantanamo Bay lease-including treaties and other agreements, a previously unpublished U.N. legal assessment, and once-classified government correspondence.

Cotter, Anne-Marie Mooney. Heaven forbid : an international legal analysis of religious discrimination.
Farnham, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate Pub. Ltd., c2009. Call number: K3280 .C68 2009

Publisher's description:
As the population becomes more diverse internationally, Religious Discrimination has become increasingly important as an area of law around the world. Heaven Forbid allows readers a better understanding of the issue of religion and inequality and aims to increase the likelihood of achieving equality at both national and international levels for those suffering religious discrimination. Discussing the two most important trade agreements of our day - namely the North American Free Trade Agreement and the European Union Treaty - in a historical and compelling analysis of discrimination, Heaven Forbid provides a detailed examination of the relationship between religious issues and the law, and will be an important read for all those concerned with equality.

Miller, Mark C., The view of the courts from the Hill : interactions between Congress and the federal judiciary.
Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2009. Call number: KF5130 .M55 2009

Publisher's description:
The View of the Courts from the Hill explores the current interactions and relationship between the U.S. Congress and federal courts using a "governance as dialogue" approach, which argues that constitutional interpretation in the United States is a continuous and complex conversation among all the institutions of government. Expanding on his previous work on this important theme, Mark C. Miller has interviewed numerous key players specifically for this book. His subjects include members of Congress, federal judges, congressional staff, employees of the judicial branch, lobbyists, and others with an interest in the courts. Their candid and thorough comments provide an invaluable resource for students and scholars eager to explore the dynamics between congressional and judicial forces as they have evolved over the past two decades.

The book examines customary interactions between Congress and the federal courts--especially the U.S. Supreme Court--as well as extraordinary conflicts between the two branches of government both today and throughout American history. Miller gives special attention to recent attempts by social conservatives in Congress to silence the voice of the courts in the inter-institutional dialogue through the use of court-stripping measures, threats of impeachment of federal judges, and a proposal for an inspector general for the courts. Particular focus is placed on the interactions between the courts and the House Judiciary Committee under Republican control, as well as the approach taken by the Religious Right toward federal judges and the federal courts in general. The book concludes with a call for the protection of judicial independence in order to preserve the voice of the federal courts in the constitutional interpretation dialogue.

Goodhart, Charles. A. E., The regulatory response to the financial crisis.
Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA : Edward Elgar Pub, c2009. Call number: HB3722 .G66x 2009

Publisher's Description:
There are already many papers and books on the causes and course of the current financial crisis, but this is the first and, for the moment, only such book to focus on the regulatory response to it. There are two main attributes that a bank needs to remain in business during a period of turmoil, liquidity to enable it to pay its debts when due, and capital, to absorb losses. Both have been insufficient. Goodhart describes what went wrong and what needs to be done, alongside discussions of deposit insurance, credit rating agencies, prompt corrective action, etc.

Charles Goodhart is the senior British economist specializing in financial stability issues. As the turmoil began, continued and exploded into crisis, he has kept up a series of commentaries, all since September 2007. These have been brought together, plus some new and additional material, to provide the reader with an overview of what went wrong in the regulatory framework for the financial system, and what now needs to be done to put that right. This will be required reading for financial regulators, practitioners in banking and finance, academics and students of finance, and those just wanting to know what went wrong and what to do now.

Gerangelos, Peter A.., The separation of powers and legislative interference in judicial process : constitutional principles and limitations.
Oxford ; Portland, Or. : Hart, 2009. Call number: K3367 .G47x 2009

Publisher's Description:
This book examines the constitutional principles governing the relationship between legislatures and courts at that critical crossroads of their power where legislatures may seek to intervene in the judicial process, or to interfere with judicial functions, to secure outcomes consistent with their policy objectives or interests. Cases of high political moment are usually involved, where the temptation, indeed political imperative, for legislatures to intervene can be overwhelming. Although the methods of intervention are various, ranging from the direct and egregious to the subtle and imperceptible, unbridled legislative power in this regard has been a continuing concern in all common law jurisdictions. Prominent examples include direct legislative interference in pending cases, usurpation of judicial powers by legislatures, limitations on the jurisdiction of courts, strategic amendments to law applicable to cases pending appeal, and attempts directly to overturn court decisions in particular cases.

Because the doctrine of the separation of powers, as entrenched constitutional rule, is a major source of principle, the book will examine in detail the jurisprudence of the United States and Australia in particular. These jurisdictions have identical constitutional provisions entrenching that doctrine as well as the most developed jurisprudence on this point. The legal position in the United Kingdom, which does not have an entrenched separation of powers doctrine, will be examined as a counterpoint. Other relevant jurisdictions (such as Canada, Ireland and India) are also examined in the context of particular principles, particularly when their respective jurisprudence is rather more developed on discrete points. The book will examine how the relevant constitutional principles strive to maintain the primacy of the law-making role of the legislature in a representative democracy and yet afford the decisional independence of the judiciary that degree of protection essential to protect it from the legislature's 'impetuous vortex', to borrow the words of Madison from the Federalist (No 48).

Cherlin, Andrew J. The marriage-go-round : the state of marriage and the family in America today.
New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. Call number: HQ535 .C416 2009

Publisher's Description:
During Andrew J. Cherlin's three decades of study and analysis of family life, he came to see that marriage in the United States was different than in other Western countries--Western Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand--in a way that no one was writing about. He realized that marriage in America, unlike in other countries in the world, was seen as a cultural ideal, and the U.S. government was spending money to promote its continuation. The institution of marriage had become a social and political battlefield.

Cherlin writes that Americans marry more repeatedly and have more live-in partners; that marriage and remarriage, frequent divorce, and short-term cohabiting relationships have resulted in a core upheaval in American family life; and that American children have been left to cope with the frequent and disruptive comings and goings of parents.

He writes that Americans have come to embrace two contradictory models of personal and family life: marriage, a formal commitment to share one's life with another; and individualism, which emphasizes personal growth and development. The former promotes a lasting relationship; the latter encourages one to move on. Each model is culturally reinforced by two basic, powerful institutions: religion and law.

Cherlin writes about the inconsistency of American religion and law with regard to family life. He argues that contemporary religion, although supportive of marriage, embraces the quest for self-development. And he makes clear that family law, which used to be centered on marriage, is today focused on the individual and his or her obligations to children.

He discusses the movement and civil struggle for same-sex marriage in America as opposed to in many European countries, where marriage is seen by gay couples as an oppressive heterosexual institution.

A fascinating book that illuminates the shifting nature of America's oldest and most cherished social institution, the subject of intense and ever-increasing national debate.

Shelley Day Sclater, et al., eds. Regulating autonomy : sex, reproduction and family.
London ; Portland, Or. : Hart, 2009. Call number: B808.67 .R44x 2009

Publisher's Description:
These essays explore the nature and limits of individual autonomy in law, policy and the work of regulatory agencies. Authors ask searching questions about the nature and scope of the regulation of 'private' lives, from intimacies, personal relationships and domestic lives to reproduction. They question the extent to which the law does, or should, protect individual autonomy. Recent rapid advances in the development of new technologies - particularly those concerned with human genetics and assisted reproduction - have generated new questions (practical, social, legal and ethical) about how far the state should intervene in individual decision making. Is there an inevitable tension between individual liberty and the common good? How might a workable balance between the public and the private be struck? How, indeed, should we think about 'autonomy'?

The essays explore the arguments used to create and maintain the boundaries of autonomy - for example, the protection of the vulnerable, public goods of various kinds, and the maintenance of tradition and respect for cultural practices. Contributors address how those boundaries should be drawn and interventions justified. How are contemporary ethical debates about autonomy constructed, and what principles do they embody? What happens when those principles become manifest in law?

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in June 2009. The list is on the Library's home page.

June Acquisitions

In addition, here are a couple highlighted titles of particular interest:

Documents of Native American political development : 1500s to 1933 / [edited by] David E. Wilkins.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009. Call number: E98.T77 D63 2009

Publisher's Description:
The arrival of European and Euro-American colonizers in the Americas brought not only physical attacks against Native American tribes, but also further attacks against the sovereignty of these Indian nations. Though the violent tales of the Trail of Tears, Black Hawk's War, and the Battle of Little Big Horn are taught far and wide, the political structure and development of Native American tribes, and the effect of American domination on Native American sovereignty, have been greatly neglected.

This book contains a variety of primary source and other documents--traditional accounts, tribal constitutions, legal codes, business councils, rules and regulations, BIA agents reports, congressional discourse, intertribal compacts--written both by Natives from many different nations and some non-Natives, that reflect how indigenous peoples continued to exercise a significant measure of self-determination long after it was presumed to have been lost, surrendered, or vanquished. The documents are arranged chronologically, and Wilkins provides brief, introductory essays to each document, placing them within the proper context. Each introduction is followed by a brief list of suggestions for further reading.

Covering a fascinating and relatively unknown period in Native American history, from the earliest examples of indigenous political writings to the formal constitutions crafted just before the American intervention of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, this anthology will be an invaluable resource for scholars and students of the political development of indigenous peoples the world over.

Taussig, Anthony. Blackstone and his contemporaries.
Tex. : Jamail Center for Legal Research, University of Texas at Austin, 2009. Call number: KD621.B54 T39x 2009

Publisher's Description:
As part of its Legal History Series, the Tarlton Law Library at The University of Texas School of Law has recently published Blackstone and His Contemporaries. The publication is based on the fourth annual rare book lecture presented by Anthony Taussig in February 2008. Taussig, a London barrister, has collected an outstanding collection of manuscripts and early printed books on English law. In his lecture, Taussig questioned traditional views about Sir William Blackstone, the English law professor and jurist who is best known for his Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765-69). This historical and analytic treatise on the common law significantly influenced the development of the American legal system.

The lecture and the publication were based largely on manuscript materials recently made available, including letters by and about Blackstone in Taussig's own collection, and in the libraries of Lambeth Palace, London, and All Souls College, Oxford. A number of these manuscript resources are reproduced in facsimile or transcribed in the published volume. In the light of those materials, Taussig reviewed Blackstone's work as a barrister and his transition from legal practice in London to a professorship of law at Oxford and then back again to the London Bar. In particular, Taussig scrutinized Blackstone's handling of his most important case--the litigation over the preferential treatment granted to the kin of the Founder (Archbishop Chichele) at All Souls College, Oxford--to evaluate Blackstone's legal skills.
More info: http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2009/052709_taussig.html

Kimball, Bruce A. The inception of modern professional education : C.C. Langdell, 1826-1906. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c2009. Call number: KF368.L36 K56 2009

Publisher's Description:
Christopher C. Langdell (1826-1906) is one of the most influential figures in the history of American professional education. As dean of Harvard Law School from 1870 to 1895, he conceived, designed, and built the educational model that leading professional schools in virtually all fields subsequently emulated. In this first full-length biography of the educator and jurist, Bruce Kimball explores Langdell's controversial role in modern professional education and in jurisprudence.

Langdell founded his model on the idea of academic meritocracy. According to this principle, scholastic achievement should determine one's merit in professional life. Despite fierce opposition from students, faculty, alumni, and legal professionals, he designed and instituted a formal system of innovative policies based on meritocracy. This system's components included the admission requirement of a bachelor's degree, the sequenced curriculum and its extension to three years, the hurdle of annual examinations for continuation and graduation, the independent career track for professional faculty, the transformation of the professional library into a scholarly resource, the inductive pedagogy of teaching from cases, the organization of alumni to support the school, and a new, highly successful financial strategy.

Langdell's model was subsequently adopted by leading law schools, medical schools, business schools, and the schools of other professions. By the time of his retirement as dean of Harvard Law School, Langdell had instituted the future model for professional education throughout the United States.

Brabandere, Eric de. Post-conflict administrations in international law : international territorial administration, transitional authority and foreign occupation in theory and practice.
Leiden ; Boston : Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2009. Call number: KZ3673 .B73 2009

Publisher's Description:
The concept of international administrations of territory, in which comprehensive administrative powers are exercised by, on behalf of or with the agreement of the United Nations has recently re-emerged in the context of reconstructing (parts of) states after conflict. Although in Kosovo and East Timor, the UN was endowed with wide-ranging executive and legislative powers, in the subsequent operations in Afghanistan it was decided, to principally rely on local capacity with minimal international participation, and in Iraq, administrative power was exercised by the occupying powers. The objectives are however very similar.

This work first delineates the origins of the granting of administrative functions to international actors, and analyses the context in which it has resurfaced, namely post-conflict peace-building or reconstruction. Secondly, the book methodically establishes the legal framework applicable to post-conflict administrations and peace-building operations, by taking into account the post-conflict scenario in which they operate. Based on these two analyses, an enquiry into the practice of the reconstruction processes in Kosovo, East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq is undertaken, to analyse and understand the influence of the international legal framework and the different approaches on the implementation of the mandates. Finally, the book concludes with an analysis of questions on exit strategies, local ownership, the internationalisation of domestic institutions, and the need for a comprehensive approach towards post-conflict reconstruction.

Dow, David R. America's prophets : how judicial activism makes America great.
Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 2009. Call number: KF5130 .D69 2009

Publisher's Description:
America's Prophets: How Judicial Activism Makes America Great fills a major void in the popular literature by providing a thorough definition and historical account of judicial activism and by arguing that it is a method of prophetic adjudication which is essential to preserving American values. Dow confounds the allegation of the Christian right that judicial activism is legally and morally unsound by tracing the roots of American judicial activism to the methods of legal and moral interpretation developed by the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. He claims that Isaiah, Amos, and Jesus are archetypal activist judges and, conversely, that modern activist judges are America's prophets. Dow argues that judicial restraint is a priestly method of adjudication and that it, not judicial activism, is the legally and morally unsound method.

Race and gender discrimination, separation of church and state, privacy rights, and same-sex marriage are all issues that have divided our nation and required judicial intervention. Every time the courts address a hot-button issue and strike down entrenched bias or bigotry, critics accuse the justices of being judicial activists, whose decisions promote their personal biases and flout constitutional principles. This term, despite its widespread currency as a pejorative, has never been rigorously defined. Critics of judicial activism properly point out that when judges overturn laws that enforce popular norms they thwart the will of the majority. But Dow argues that so-called activist judges uphold two other American legal values that are as deeply embedded in American legal culture as majoritarianism: liberty andequality. He challenges the notion that judicial activism is unprincipled, and he provides a vocabulary and historical context for defending progressive decisions.

With roots in the biblical prophets, judicial activism is a contemporary method of legal interpretation whereby judges base their decisions not on what they personally believe, but instead on the fundamental American values of liberty and equality.

Witte, John. The sins of the fathers : the law and theology of illegitimacy reconsidered.
Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009. Call number: K702 .W58 2009

Publisher's Description:
For nearly two millennia, Western law visited the sins of fathers and mothers upon their illegitimate children, subjecting them to systematic discrimination and deprivation. The graver the sins of their parents, the further these children fell in social standing and legal protection. While some reformers have sought to better the plight of illegitimate children, only in recent decades has illegitimacy lost its full legal sting. Yet the social, economic, and psychological costs of illegitimacy still remain high even in the liberal, affluent West.

Joseph Raz. Between authority and interpretation : on the theory of law and practical reason.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009. Call number: K231 .R39 2009

Publisher's description:
In this book Joseph Raz develops his views on some of the central questions in practical philosophy: legal, political and moral. The book provides an overview of Raz's work on jurisprudence and the nature of law in the context of broader questions in the philosophy of practical reason.

The book opens with a discussion of methodological issues, focusing on understanding the nature of jurisprudence, asking how the nature of law can be explained, and how the success of a legal theory can be established. The book then addresses central questions on the nature of law, its relation to morality, the nature and justification of authority, and the nature of legal reasoning. It explains how legitimate law, while being a branch of applied morality, is also a relatively autonomous system, which has the potential to bridge moral differences among its subjects. Raz offers responses to some critical reactions to his theory of authority, adumbrating and modifying the theory to meet some of them. The final part of the book brings together for the first time Raz's work on the nature of interpretation in law and the humanities. It includes a new essay explaining interpretive pluralism and the possibility of interpretive innovation.

Taken together, the essays in the volume offer a valuable introduction for students coming for the first time to Raz's work in the philosophy of law, and an original contribution to many of the current debates in practical philosophy.

Jamal. J.A. Nasir. The status of women under Islamic law and modern Islamic legislation. 3rd ed. of the rev. and updated work.
Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2009. Call number: KBP526.32.N37 A37 2009

Publisher's description:
This book is believed to be the first of its kind written by a renowned Muslim lawyer in the English language, and by an Arab author who is probably the leading authority writing in English in the subject of Islamic law (the Sharia), and modern Islamic legislation.

There has long been a need for an objective study such as this dealing with the legal rights and obligations of women under the Sharia and under modern Arab Islamic legislation. Seen within the broad principles of Islamic law, the book examines the status of women with regard to marriage, the iddat, parentage and fosterage and custody, and fills an important gap left by recent and more general publications on Islamic law.
The author has researched original Arabic and Islamic text books and reviewed legislation in the different Arab countries in order to present the most up-to-date information on the subject.

It is hoped that this clear, objective account will dispel many of the commonly-held misconceptions about the status of Muslim women in the modern world. This book will provide an enlightenment and deeper understanding of the subject, not only for legal practitioners, but for all those concerned, or with an interest in the subject, particularly Muslim communities in non-Muslim countries, indeed non-Muslim women who may be married to Muslims.

Halliday, Terence C. and Bruce G. Carruthers. Bankrupt : global lawmaking and systemic financial crisis.
Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, c2009. Call number: K1375 .H35 2009

Publisher's Description:
The Asian Financial Crisis dramatically illustrated the vulnerability of financial markets in emerging, transitional, and advanced economies. In response, international organizations insisted that legal reforms could help protect markets from financial breakdowns. Sitting at the nexus between the legal system and the market, corporate bankruptcy law ensures that the casualties of capitalism are treated in an orderly way.

Halliday and Carruthers show how global actors--including the IMF, World Bank, UN, and international professional associations--developed comprehensive norms for corporate bankruptcy laws and how national policymakers responded in turn. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in China, Indonesia and Korea, the authors reveal how national policymakers contested and negotiated domestic laws in the context of global pressures. The first study of its kind, this book offers a theory of legal change to explain why global/local tensions produce implementation gaps. Through its analysis of globalization, this book has lessons for international organizations and developing and transition economies the world over.

Artz, Lilian and Dee Smythe, eds. Should we consent? : rape law reform in South Africa.
Cape Town : Juta, c2008. Call number: KTL4202 .S56x 2008

Publisher's Description:
For more than a decade, South Africans have been advocating a reform of the country's laws on sexual offences. South Africa has one of the highest levels of reported rape in the world, and legislative reform was seen as an essential step towards shifting the understanding of rape and its treatment within the criminal justice system. Since 1996 the activism has focused on the South African Law Reform Commission's investigation into sexual offences, and the parliamentary process, which culminated at the end of 2007 in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act.

Many of the authors of Should We Consent? were involved in substantive legal submissions, research and legislative drafting and promoting changes to the law to provide rape victims with effective redress and protection. Drawing on a body of empirical, social and legal scholarship, this unique text charts the critical social and legal debates and jurisprudential developments that took place during the rape law reform process. This book also provides important insights into the engagement of civil society with law reform and includes thoughtful and contemporary discussions on topics such as 'defining' rape, HIV, sexual offences against children and sentencing of sexual offenders.

Joyner, Daniel. International law and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009. Call number: KZ5675 .J69 2009

Publisher’s Description:
Proliferation of WMD technologies is by no means a new concern for the international community. Indeed, since the signing of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty in 1968, tremendous energies have been expended upon diplomatic efforts to create a web of treaties and international organizations regulating the production and stockpiling of WMD sensitive materials within states, as well as their spread through the increasingly globalized channels of international trade to other states and non-state actors.

However, the intervention in 2003 by Western powers in Iraq has served as an illustration of the importance of greater understanding of and attention to this area of law, as disagreements over its content and application have once again lead to a potentially destabilizing armed intervention by members of the United Nations into the sovereign territory of another member state. Other ongoing disputes between states regarding the character of obligations work assumed under non-proliferation treaty instruments, and the effect of international organizations' decisions in this area, form some of the most contentious and potentially destabilizing issues of foreign policy concern for many states.

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of international law and organizations in the area of WMD proliferation. It will serve both as a reference for understanding the law as it currently exists in its political and economic context, as well as an analysis of areas in which amendments to existing law and organizations are needed.

Bowden, Brett, Hilary Charlesworth and Jeremy Farrall, eds. The role of international law in rebuilding societies after conflict : great expectations.
Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009. Call number: KZ6785 .R65 2009

Publisher’s Description:
International law can create great expectations in those seeking to rebuild societies that have been torn apart by conflict. For outsiders, international law can mandate or militate against intervention, bolstering or undermining the legitimacy of intervention. International legal principles promise equality, justice and human rights. Yet international law's promises are difficult to fulfill. This volume of essays investigates the phenomenon of post-conflict state-building and the engagement of international law in this enterprise. It draws together original essays by scholars and practitioners who consider the many roles international law can play in rehabilitating societies after conflict. The essays explore troubled zones across the world, from Afghanistan to Africa's Great Lakes region, and from Timor-Leste to the Balkans. They identify a range of possibilities for international law in tempering, regulating, legitimating or undermining efforts to rebuild post-conflict societies.

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in May 2009. The list is on the Library's home page.

May Acquisitions

In addition, here are several highlighted titles of particular interest:

Hugo van der Merwe, Victoria Baxter, Audrey R. Chapman, eds. Assessing the impact of transitional justice : challenges for empirical research.
Washington, D.C. : United States Institute of Peace Press, 2009. Call number: K5301 .A976 2009

Publisher’s Description:
As new forms of government replace repressive regimes, the perennial question arises: how to deal with the wrongdoers of the old regime? In the effort to heal and rebuild societies torn by violence, new governments and the international community have tried mechanisms ranging from criminal trials and financial restitution to public denunciation to more symbolic measures such as truth commissions. The results have been mixed. But out of the often failed transitional justice processes of the past, a body of empirical research is emerging that can provide, if not prescriptive answers, at least better questions.

In Assessing the Impact of Transitional Justice, fourteen leading researchers study seventy countries that have suffered from autocratic rule, genocide, and protracted internal conflict. The authors gauge the effectiveness of various transitional justice mechanisms in wide-ranging sociocultural contexts. In a dramatic departure from the typically discursive, anecdotal literature, they use empirical research to make statistical comparisons among the bewildering array of factors that can affect the success or failure of transitional justice. Their findings will prove vitally important for policymakers, legal advocates, and anyone else faced with the daunting task of implementing or monitoring restorative justice processes.

Ayelet Shachar. The birthright lottery : citizenship and global inequality.
Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2009. Call number: K3224 .S53 2009

Publisher’s Description:
The vast majority of the global population acquires citizenship purely by accidental circumstances of birth. There is little doubt that securing membership status in a given state bequeaths to some a world filled with opportunity and condemns others to a life with little hope. Gaining privileges by such arbitrary criteria as one’s birthplace is discredited in virtually all fields of public life, yet birthright entitlements still dominate our laws when it comes to allotting membership in a state.

In The Birthright Lottery, Ayelet Shachar argues that birthright citizenship in an affluent society can be thought of as a form of property inheritance: that is, a valuable entitlement transmitted by law to a restricted group of recipients under conditions that perpetuate the transfer of this prerogative to their heirs. She deploys this fresh perspective to establish that nations need to expand their membership boundaries beyond outdated notions of blood-and-soil in sculpting the body politic. Located at the intersection of law, economics, and political philosophy, The Birthright Lottery further advocates redistributional obligations on those benefiting from the inheritance of membership, with the aim of ameliorating its most glaring opportunity inequalities.

Elisa Morgera. Corporate accountability in international environmental law.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009. Call number: K3585 .M67 2009

Publisher’s Description:
What is the current and future role of international environmental law in directing and controlling the conduct of business enterprises, particularly multinational corporations? This book responds to this topical question by identifying corporate accountability standards and discussing their implementation by international organizations.

This is the first book to examine systematically all international sources of corporate accountability standards with specific reference to environmental protection and to elaborate on their theoretical and practical implications for international environmental law. The book argues that although international environmental law does not bind multinational corporations and other business entities, growing international practice points to the emergence of legal standards. These standards allow adapting and translating inter-State obligations embodied in international environmental law into specific normative benchmarks to determine the legitimacy of the conduct of the private sector against internationally recognized values and rules.

The role of international organizations that, in the absence of State intervention, identify and promote the application of selected international environmental standards is analyzed in depth. This analysis demonstrates how these international organizations are a driving force in establishing and operating international standards for corporate environmental accountability.

Dan Markel, Jennifer M. Collins, and Ethan J. Leib. Privilege or punish : criminal justice and the challenge of family ties.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, c2009. Call number: K5001 .M37 2009

Publisher’s Description:
This book answers two basic but under-appreciated questions: first, how does the American criminal justice system address a defendant's family status? And, second, how should a defendant's family status be recognized, if at all, in a criminal justice system situated within a liberal democracy committed to egalitarian principles of non-discrimination? After surveying the variety of "family ties benefits" and "family ties burdens" in our criminal justice system, the authors explain why policymakers and courts should view with caution and indeed skepticism any attempt to distribute these benefits or burdens based on one's family status. This is a controversial stance, but Markel, Collins, and Leib argue that in many circumstances there are simply too many costs to the criminal justice system when it gives special treatment based on one's family ties or responsibilities.

Privilege or Punish breaks new ground by offering an important synthetic view of the intersection between crime, punishment, and the family. Although in recent years scholars have been successful in analyzing the indirect effects of certain criminal justice policies and practices on the family, few have recognized the panoply of laws (whether statutory or common law-based) expressly drawn to privilege or disadvantage persons based on family status alone. It is critically necessary to pause and think through how and why our laws intentionally target one's family status and how the underlying goals of such a choice might better be served in some cases. This book begins that vitally important conversation with an array of innovative policy recommendations that should be of interest to anyone interested in the improvement of our criminal justice system.

Bruff, Harold H. Bad advice : Bush’s lawyers in the war on terror.
Lawrence, Kan. : University Press of Kansas, c2009. Call number: KF5060 .B78 2009

Publisher’s Description:
From wiretapping American citizens to waterboarding foreign prisoners, the Bush administration has triggered an uproar over its tactics in the War on Terror—and over its justifications for using them. Through a close study of the legal advice provided to President Bush, former Justice Department attorney Harold Bruff provides an incisive and scathing critique of those justifications, which he finds at odds with both American law and moral authority.

Bruff rigorously examines legal opinions regarding NSA surveillance, the indefinite detention of terror suspects, the denial of Geneva Convention protection, trial by military commissions, and suspect interrogation techniques. He shows that Bush’s claims of executive power exceed anything found in U.S. history or judicial precedent, that clear statutory limitations were treated with contempt, and that Bush and his lawyers strove to exclude both congressional and judicial participation in setting anti-terrorist policy.

Bruff dissects the legal underpinnings employed by John Yoo, David Addington, Alberto Gonzales, and others to defend an inflated view of presidential power, showing how they combined ideology, policy advocacy, and selective readings of legal precedent to bolster executive actions. Most important, he brings into sharp focus legitimate counterarguments from the State Department, the Pentagon, and the Office of Legal Counsel that challenged or refuted these legally suspect views and yet were largely ignored or even ridiculed by the president’s advisers. Offering contrasts with the legal advice provided previous presidents, he also reviews the fundamental constitutional limits on executive action and the principles of professional responsibility that govern lawyers when they counsel government clients.

As Bruff observes, bad advice to presidents is never in short supply, but legal advice should be objective and reliable. His book points up the urgent need for advisers to serve both the president and the nation by finding a middle ground between limiting presidential power and allowing it the flexibility it needs to respond to crises. Both highly readable and authoritative, it is a must for legal scholars and an eye-opener for every citizen concerned with preserving our nation’s commitment to the rule of law.

Posner, Richard A. A failure of capitalism : the crisis of ’08 and the descent into depression.
Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2009. Call number: HB3722 .P67 2009

Publisher’s Description:
The financial and economic crisis that began in 2008 is the most alarming of our lifetime because of the warp-speed at which it is occurring. How could it have happened, especially after all that we’ve learned from the Great Depression? Why wasn’t it anticipated so that remedial steps could be taken to avoid or mitigate it? What can be done to reverse a slide into a full-blown depression? Why have the responses to date of the government and the economics profession been so lackluster? Richard Posner presents a concise and non-technical examination of this mother of all financial disasters and of the, as yet, stumbling efforts to cope with it. No previous acquaintance on the part of the reader with macroeconomics or the theory of finance is presupposed. This is a book for intelligent generalists that will interest specialists as well.

Among the facts and causes Posner identifies are: excess savings flowing in from Asia and the reckless lowering of interest rates by the Federal Reserve Board; the relation between executive compensation, short-term profit goals, and risky lending; the housing bubble fuelled by low interest rates, aggressive mortgage marketing, and loose regulations; the low savings rate of American people; and the highly leveraged balance sheets of large financial institutions.

Posner analyzes the two basic remedial approaches to the crisis, which correspond to the two theories of the cause of the Great Depression: the monetarist—that the Federal Reserve Board allowed the money supply to shrink, thus failing to prevent a disastrous deflation—and the Keynesian—that the depression was the product of a credit binge in the 1920’s, a stock-market crash, and the ensuing downward spiral in economic activity. Posner concludes that the pendulum swung too far and that our financial markets need to be more heavily regulated.

Alexander, Larry, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan, with contributions by Stephen J. Morse. Crime and culpability : a theory of criminal law.
New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009. Call number: K5103 .A44 2009

Publisher’s Description:
This book presents a comprehensive overview of what the criminal law would look like if organised around the principle that those who deserve punishment should receive punishment commensurate with, but no greater than, that which they deserve. Larry Alexander and Kimberly Kessler Ferzan argue that desert is a function of the actor’s culpability, and that culpability is a function of the risks of harm to protected interests that the actor believes he is imposing and his reasons for acting in the face of those risks. The authors deny that resultant harms, as well as unperceived risks, affect the actor’s desert. They thus reject punishment for inadvertent negligence as well as for intentions or preparatory acts that are not risky. Alexander and Ferzan discuss the reasons for imposing risks that negate or mitigate culpability, the individuation of crimes, and omissions.

Muhlhahn, Klaus. Criminal justice in China : a history.
Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2009. Call number: KNN1572 .M84 2009

Publisher’s Description:
In a groundbreaking work, Klaus Muhlhahn offers a comprehensive examination of the criminal justice system in modern China, an institution deeply rooted in politics, society, and culture. In late imperial China, flogging, tattooing, torture, and servitude were routine punishments. Sentences, including executions, were generally carried out in public.

After 1905, in a drive to build a strong state and curtail pressure from the West, Chinese officials initiated major legal reforms. Physical punishments were replaced by fines and imprisonment. Capital punishment, though removed from the public sphere, remained in force for the worst crimes. Trials no longer relied on confessions obtained through torture but were instead held in open court and based on evidence. Prison reform became the centerpiece of an ambitious social-improvement program.

After 1949, the Chinese communists developed their own definitions of criminality and new forms of punishment. People's tribunals were convened before large crowds, which often participated in the proceedings. At the center of the socialist system was 'reform through labor', and thousands of camps administered prison sentences. Eventually, the communist leadership used the camps to detain anyone who offended against the new society, and the 'crime' of counter-revolution was born. Muhlhahn reveals the broad contours of criminal justice from late imperial China to the Deng reform era and details the underlying values, successes and failures, and ultimate human costs of the system.

Farahany, Nita A., ed. The impact of behavioral sciences on criminal law.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009. Call number: K5028.5 .I47 2009

Publisher’s Description:
The Impact of Behavioral Sciences on Criminal Law is essential reading for anyone interested in the ongoing genomics and neuroscience revolution and its implications for criminal law. Building in part on a recent multi-disciplinary conference, this collection of essays offers a comprehensive discussion of the ramifications of behavioral sciences in criminal cases and brings together the leading behavioral geneticists, neuroscientists, philosophers, policymakers, and legal scholars to address the multi-faceted concerns at issue.

Together, the essays in this volume discuss the scientific progress and limitations in behavioral science research relating to criminal conduct, and the ethical concerns and practical implications of introducing behavioral science evidence into criminal cases. Included is a detailed discussion of criminal cases in which biological and neurological predisposition testimony has been introduced, the implications for criminal responsibility and punishment, the consequences for DNA databank research, new directions in predictions of future dangerousness, and the concerns for ethnic and racial minorities arising from this research.

Lynch, Timothy, ed. In the name of justice : leading experts reexamine the classic article "The aims of the criminal law."
Washington, D.C. : Cato Institute, c2009. Call number: KF9223 .I58 2009

Publisher’s Description:
Is the American criminal justice system dysfunctional? Our criminal codes are so voluminous that they bewilder not only the average citizen, but also the average lawyer. Our courthouses are so busy that they no longer have time for trials. And the American prison population now leads that of the world. Are these trends desirable, satisfactory, or disturbing? In order to answer that question, one must first be clear about the fundamental purpose of the criminal law. Fifty years ago, the distinguished Harvard law professor Henry M. Hart Jr. wrote his classic article entitled “The Aims of the Criminal Law.” In this volume, America's leading judges and scholars reexamine Professor Hart's thesis and the first principles of American criminal law.

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in April 2009. The list is on the Library's home page.

April Acquisitions

In addition, here are several highlighted titles of particular interest:

The United States Constitution : a graphic adaptation / written by Jonathan Hennessey ; art by Aaron McConnell.
New York : Hill and Wang, 2008. Call number: Literature and the Arts E303 .H46 2008

Publisher’s Description:

Our leaders swear to uphold it, our military to defend it. It is the blueprint for the shape and function of government itself and what defines Americans as Americans. But how many of us truly know our Constitution?

The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation uses the art of illustrated storytelling to breathe life into our nation’s cornerstone principles. Simply put, it is the most enjoyable and groundbreaking way to read the governing document of the United States. Spirited and visually witty, it roves article by article, amendment by amendment, to get at the meaning, background, and enduring relevance of the law of the land.

What revolutionary ideas made the Constitution’s authors dare to cast off centuries of rule by kings and queens? Why do we have an electoral college rather than a popular vote for president and vice president? How did a document that once sanctioned slavery, denied voting rights to women, and turned a blind eye to state governments running roughshod over the liberties of minorities transform into a bulwark of protection for all?
The United States Constitution answers all of these questions. Sure to surprise, challenge, and provoke, it is hands down the most memorable introduction to America’s founding document.

Lash, Kurt T. The lost history of the Ninth Amendment.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, c2009. Call number: KF4558 9th .L37 2009

Publisher’s Description:

The most important aspect of The Lost History of the Ninth Amendment is its presentation of newly uncovered historical evidence which calls into question the currently presumed meaning and application of the Ninth Amendment. The evidence not only challenges the traditional view regarding the original meaning of the Ninth Amendment, it also falsifies the common assumption that the Amendment lay dormant prior to the Supreme Court's "discovery" of the clause in Griswold v. Connecticut.

As a history of the Ninth Amendment, the book recapitulates the history of federalism in America and the idea that local self-government is a right retained by the people. This issue has particular contemporary salience as the Supreme Court considers whether states have the right to authorize medicinal use of marijuana, refuse to assist the enforcement of national laws like the Patriot Act, or regulate physician-assisted suicide. The meaning of the Ninth Amendment has played a key role in past Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justices and the current divide on the Court regarding the meaning of the Ninth Amendment makes it likely the subject will come up again during the next set of hearings.

Lindquist, Stefanie A. and Frank B. Cross. Measuring judicial activism.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, c2009. Call number: KF8742 .L56 2009

Publisher’s Description:

Measuring Judicial Activism supplies empirical analysis to the widely discussed concept of judicial activism at the United States Supreme Court. Complaints about activist Court decisions are common within contemporary political discourse, but these objections often have little substantive meaning beyond the speaker's disagreement with particular case outcomes. Frequently debated by legal scholars, judicial activism is shaped by the participants' ideological perspectives as well as by their subjective views regarding ambiguous constitutional provisions. Although no study can be perfectly objective, Measuring Judicial Activism seeks to move beyond these more subjective debates by conceptualizing activism in non-ideological terms, identifying specific empirical dimensions to the concept, and measuring those dimensions using systematic social scientific techniques. In so doing, the book allows the authors to assess the relative "activism" of recent justices on the Court.

Stefanie Lindquist and Frank B. Cross's work is guided theoretically by the notion that, at its core, the concept of activism involves concerns over the judiciary's institutional aggrandizement at the expense of the elected branches. An important corollary idea is that such efforts are particularly "activist" when they further the justices' own policy or ideological objectives. From these core theoretical ideas, the authors identify specific empirical manifestations that reflect the expansion of judicial power. In particular, the authors evaluate the Court's exercise of judicial review to invalidate legislative and executive action. Lindquist and Cross also analyze the justices' willingness to expand the Court's power by granting litigants increased access to the courts and overruling the Court's own precedents. In these contexts, Measuring Judicial Activism considers the extent to which these actions are consistent with the justices' ideological predilections.

Kende, Mark S. Constitutional rights in two worlds : South Africa and the United States.
Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009. Call number: K3239.53 2009

Publisher’s Description:

The South African Constitutional Court has issued internationally prominent decisions abolishing the death penalty, enforcing socio-economic rights, allowing gay marriage and promoting equality. These decisions are striking given the country’s Apartheid past and the absence of a grand human rights tradition. By contrast, the U.S. Supreme Court has generally ruled more conservatively on similar questions. This book examines the Constitutional Court in detail to determine how it has functioned during South Africa’s transition and compares its rulings to those of the U.S. Supreme Court on similar rights issues. The book also analyzes the scholarly debate about the Constitutional Court taking place in South Africa. It furthermore addresses the arguments of those international scholars who have suggested that constitutional courts do not generally bring about social change. In the end, the book highlights a transformative pragmatic method of constitutional interpretation – a method the U.S. Supreme Court could employ.

Ebbesson, Jonas and Phoebe Okowa, eds. Environmental law and justice in context. Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009. Call number: K3585 .E5793 2009

Publisher’s Description:

This innovative collection of essays discusses the extent to which considerations of justice and fairness have permeated the legal debate on environmental protection. Written by a wide range of contributors who have approached the subject from fresh theoretical and practical perspectives, the essays examine how these permutations of justice have influenced policy choices relating to topics like climate change, protection of the stratospheric zone, trade and the conduct of warfare. The significance of participatory rights as a medium for the realisation of environmental justice is given extended treatment, and the contributors also assess the congruence between environmental justice and structural issues, such as gender, class, state borders and, on a global scale, North-South relations. The book will inform and stimulate debate on an important-yet-neglected aspect of the environmental discourse, and is highly recommended for researchers and students of international and domestic law, political science and international relations.

Powe, L. A. Scot. The Supreme Court and the American elite, 1789-2008. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2009. Call number: KF8742 .P683 2009

Publisher’s Description:

“The Supreme Court follows the election returns,” the fictional Mr. Dooley observed a hundred years ago. And for all our ideals and dreams of a disinterested judiciary, above the political fray, it seems Mr. Dooley was right. In this engaging—and disturbing—book, a leading historian of the Court reveals the close fit between its decisions and the nation’s politics.

The story begins with the creation of the Constitution and ends with the June 2008 decisions on the rights of detainees at Guantánamo Bay. Rendering crisp (and often controversial) judgments on key decisions from Marbury v. Madison to the War on Terror, Lucas Powe shows how virtually every major Supreme Court ruling, however deftly framed in constitutional terms, suited the wishes of the most powerful politicians of the time. This history reflects a changing Court, from the country’s early struggles over commerce and transportation to the torturous justifications of slavery before the Civil War, to a post–New Deal interest in ending segregation, controlling criminal procedure, and addressing knotty questions arising from the Cold War. Through all of this the Court emerges as part of a ruling regime, doing its best to implement the regime’s policies.

Drawing on more than four decades of thinking about the Supreme Court and its role in the American political system, this book offers a new, clear, and troubling perspective on American jurisprudence, politics, and history.

This week we highlight recent acquisitions received from the ABA. Enjoy!

Friedman, Gary J. and Jack Himmelstein. Challenging conflict : mediation through understanding.
Chicago, IL : American Bar Association, 2008. Call number: KF9084 .H56 2008

Publisher’s Description:
This revolutionary book shows how through mediation parties can escape the trap of conflict rather than remain ensnared within its grasp at enormous cost to themselves and others. The authors demonstrate how mediators, and lawyers, can support parties to work together effectively in ways that deeply respect their humanity. Through the telling of ten riveting stories of actual commercial mediations, the principles and methodologies of the understanding-based approach come alive. In so "challenging conflict," the authors also challenge the conflict resolution field to reach for more.

Paul, George L. Foundations of digital evidence.
Chicago, IL : American Bar Association, 2008. Call number: KF8902.E42 P38 2008

Publisher’s Description:
Foundations of Digital Evidence provides you with a legal and practical approach to the new world of digital information…. The book provides an overview and history of digital evidence, as well as a thorough discussion of relevant issues, including:
•How you can view and understand informational records, so that you can ask the right questions in search of the truth;
•An understanding of how to ensure that any digital record is authentic, including a full explanation of how to authenticate digital evidence -- or contest its admission as the case may be;
•A discussion of the three principal foundations that determine whether a digital writing is authentic;
•How to test whether digital information has changed through time;
•A discussion of the various ways evidence of time appears in digital records;
•An overview of identity issues -- How do we know who is playing in our information systems? Is there a way to keep track? Who authored a digital record?
•An understanding of hearsay rules and under what circumstances judges admit computer-generated information into evidence.

Joy, Peter A. and Kevin C. McMunigal. Do no wrong : ethics for prosecutors and defenders.
Chicago : American Bar Association, c2009. Call number: KF9619 .J69 2009

Publisher’s Description:
Criminal law practice is a minefield of legal ethics issues for both the prosecution and defense. There are a myriad of ethical questions requiring not only an understanding of the relevant ethics rules, but also applicable constitutional and statutory law as well as rules of criminal procedure and evidence. This book aims to put these and other ethical questions on the "radar screens" of criminal practitioners and to provide both prosecution and defense with the analysis and authorities necessary to understand the issues and underlying policies. This book gathers in one place ethics columns written over a number of years for the ABA Criminal Justice Section's publication Criminal Justice. Each has been updated and some expanded.

Young, John Hardin, ed. International election principles : democracy & the rule of law.
Chicago : ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, c2009. Call number: K3293 .I58 2009

Publisher’s Description:
International Election Principles is a practical resource covering standards, rules, and other criteria that apply to elections around the world. The book is designed to help attorneys (and others observing or otherwise participating in the electoral process) understand the general standards and theoretical complexities of the field. Some of the chapter authors focus on collaborative efforts of non-governmental organizations and similar institutions to strengthen electoral procedures; others use comparative assessments to review election doctrines. Each author presents core principles to explain electoral processes and examines democratic elections in a broader political context. This comprehensive resource will help unite theory and practice in this rapidly evolving field.

International criminal law / edited by M. Cherif Bassiouni.
3rd ed. Leiden, Netherlands : Martinus Nijhoff Pub., c2008. Call number: K5165 .I58 2008

Publisher’s Description:
The definitive treatise on international criminal law, M. Cherif Bassiouni’s unique 3- volume collection is now in its third edition. Written by more than 50 outstanding authorities from 19 countries, it covers the entire field, from the theory of what makes a crime "international" to the step-by-step conduct of an international prosecution. Its in-depth coverage includes:

• analysis of the doctrinal basis of international criminal law
• the historical development of international criminal law and policy
• detailed treatment of 16 crimes that have been given international jurisdiction, including torture, genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity
• issues of immunity and jurisdiction
• judicial assistance
• recognition of foreign penal judgments
• extradition and transfer of prisoners
• taking evidence abroad
• seizure of foreign assets
• international criminal tribunals procedure
• international criminal prosecutions in domestic courts
• and a great deal more

Attention is paid throughout the presentation to the complex cultural and regional issues that often arise in this field of practice.

Lessons from the identity trail : anonymity, privacy and identity in a networked society / edited by Ian Kerr, Valerie Steeves, and Carole Lucock.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, c2009. Call number: K3264.C65 L47 2009

Publisher’s Description:
During the past decade, rapid developments in information and communications technology have transformed key social, commercial and political realities. Within that same time period, working at something less than internet speed, much of the academic and policy debates arising from these new and emerging technologies have been fragmented. There have been few examples of interdisciplinary dialogue about the potential for anonymity and privacy in a networked society. Lessons from the Identity Trail fills that gap, and examines key questions about anonymity, privacy and identity in an environment that increasingly automates the collection of personal information and uses surveillance to reduce corporate and security risks.

This project has been informed by the results of a multi-million dollar research project that has brought together a distinguished array of philosophers, ethicists, feminists, cognitive scientists, lawyers, cryptographers, engineers, policy analysts, government policy makers and privacy experts. Working collaboratively over a four-year period and participating in an iterative process designed to maximize the potential for interdisciplinary discussion and feedback through a series of workshops and peer review, the authors have integrated crucial public policy themes with the most recent research outcomes.

The emerging practice of the International Criminal Court / edited by Carsten Stahn and Goran Sluiter ; with a foreword by Adriaan Bos.
Leiden ; Boston : Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2009. Call number: KZ6311 .E364 2009

Publisher’s Description:
The International Criminal Court is at a crossroads. In 1998, the Court was still a fiction. A decade later, it has become operational and faces its first challenges as a judicial institution. This volume examines this transition. It analyses the first jurisprudence and policies of the Court. It provides a systematic survey of the emerging law and practice in four main areas: the relationship of the Court to domestic jurisdictions, prosecutorial policy and practice, the treatment of the Court’s applicable law and the shaping of its procedure. It revisits major themes, such as jurisdiction, complementarity, cooperation, prosecutorial discretion, modes of liability, pre-trial, trial and appeals procedure and the treatment of victims and witnesses, as well as their criticisms. It also explores some of challenges and potential avenues for future reform.

Knowles, Helen J. The tie goes to freedom : Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on liberty.
Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, c2009. Call number: KF4749 .K59 2009

Publisher’s Description:
At the ideological center of the Supreme Court sits Anthony M. Kennedy, whose pivotal role on the Rehnquist Court is only expected to grow in importance now that he is the lone "swing Justice" on the Roberts Court. The Ties Goes to Freedom is the first book-length analysis of Kennedy, and it challenges the conventional wisdom that his jurisprudence is inconsistent and incoherent.

Using the hot-button issues of privacy rights, race, and free speech, this book demonstrates how Kennedy forcefully articulates a libertarian constitutional vision. The Tie Goes to Freedom fills two significant voids--one examining the jurisprudence of the man at the ideological center of the Supreme Court, the other demonstrating the compatibility of an expansive judicial role with libertarian political theory.

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in March 2009. The list is on the Library's home page.

March Acquisitions

In addition, here are several highlighted titles of particular interest:

Sunstein, Cass R. A Constitution of many minds : why the founding document doesn’t mean what it meant before. Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2009. Call number: KF4552 .S86 2009

Publisher’s Description:
The future of the U.S. Supreme Court hangs in the balance like never before. Will conservatives or liberals succeed in remaking the court in their own image? In A Constitution of Many Minds, acclaimed law scholar Cass Sunstein proposes a bold new way of interpreting the Constitution, one that respects the Constitution's text and history but also refuses to view the document as frozen in time.

Exploring hot-button issues ranging from presidential power to same-sex relations to gun rights, Sunstein shows how the meaning of the Constitution is reestablished in every generation as new social commitments and ideas compel us to reassess our fundamental beliefs. He focuses on three approaches to the Constitution--traditionalism, which grounds the document's meaning in long-standing social practices, not necessarily in the views of the founding generation; populism, which insists that judges should respect contemporary public opinion; and cosmopolitanism, which looks at how foreign courts address constitutional questions, and which suggests that the meaning of the Constitution turns on what other nations do.

Sunstein demonstrates that in all three contexts a "many minds" argument is at work--put simply, better decisions result when many points of view are considered. He makes sense of the intense debates surrounding these approaches, revealing their strengths and weaknesses, and sketches the contexts in which each provides a legitimate basis for interpreting the Constitution today. This book illuminates the underpinnings of constitutionalism itself, and shows that ours is indeed a Constitution, not of any particular generation, but of many minds.

Goldfarb, Ronald L. In confidence : when to protect secrecy and when to require disclosure.
New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, c2009.Call number: KF8958 .G65 2009

Publisher’s Description:
The variety and pervasiveness of confidentiality issues today is breathtaking. Not a day passes without a media report on a breach of confidentiality, a claim of attorney-client privilege, a journalist jailed for refusing to reveal a source, a medical or hospital record improperly disclosed, or a major business deal exposed by anonymous sources. In Confidence examines confidential issues that arise in various disciplines and relationships and considers which should be protected and which should not.

Ronald Goldfarb organizes the book around professionals for whom confidentiality is an issue of weighty importance: government officials, attorneys, medical personnel, psychotherapists, clergy, business people, and journalists. In a chapter devoted to each, and in another on spousal privilege, he lays out specific issues and the law’s positions on them. He discusses an array of court cases in which confidentiality issues played an important role and decisions were often surprising and controversial. Goldfarb also looks into the criteria that should be used when determining whether secrets must be revealed. His nuanced analysis reveals how federal government practices and technological capabilities increasingly challenge the boundaries of privacy, and his thoughtful insights open the door to meaningful new debate.

International legal dimension of terrorism / edited by Pablo Antonio Fernandez-Sanchez.
Leiden ; Boston : Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2009. Call number: K5256 .I59 2009

Publisher’s Description:
More than ever before International Humanitarian Law needs to find new solutions to new types of conflicts. The current state of the fight against terrorism is without doubt one of the new problems facing international society and one of the concerns of International Humanitarian Law. This volume offers reflections on the international legal theory of terrorism, international responsibility, the obligation to prevent terrorist acts, terrorism in armed conflicts, the responses to terrorism by regional international organizations and the legal limits to the fight against terrorism.

The contributors consist of academics (and politicians) from Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon and Israel, as well as from Spain, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and a representative for the Organisation of American States. The book thus contains a wide, multidisciplinary debate, with an emphasis on a Mediterranean perspective.

In addition to examining all aspects of international terrorism, the objective of the symposium which gave rise to these essays was to establish some guidelines, in the form of a Declaration, to serve as the basis for the UN’s High Level Group for the Alliance of Civilisations on the subject of international terrorism. This overall objective was achieved with the adoption of the Huelva Declaration for an Alliance of Civilisations against Terrorism, the text of which is included at the end of this book.

The Oxford handbook of international trade law / edited by Daniel Bethlehem ... [et al.].
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009. Call number: K1005 .O94 2009

Publisher’s Description:
Over the past 10 years, the content and application of international trade law has grown dramatically. The WTO created a binding dispute settlement process and in resolving disputes, the judicial organs of the WTO have built up a substantial amount of new international trade law. Emerging from this new WTO process is an international trade law system that is in some respects self-contained and in other respects overlapping and linked to other international legal, economic and political regimes. The 'boundaries' of trade law are now generating enormous interest and controversy which, at a broader level, is subsumed within the debate over globalization.

The detailed development of the rules of international trade is being examined with increasing frequency by scholars, government officials and trade law practitioners. But how does it fit with existing systems? How it is modified by them? How does the international trade law system affect and modify other regimes?

This Handbook places international trade law within its broader context, providing comment and critique on contemporary thinking on a range of questions both related specifically to the discipline of international trade law itself and to the outside face of international trade law and its intersection with States and other aspects of the international system. It examines the economic and institutional context of the world trading system, its substantive law (including regional trade regimes) and the settlement of disputes. The final part of the book explores the wider framework of the world trading system, considering issues including the relationship of the WTO to civil society, the use of economic sanctions, state responsibility, and the regulation of multinational corporations.

McDonald, Avril, Jann K. Kleffner, and Brigit Toebes, eds. Depleted uranium weapons and international law : a precautionary approach.
The Hague : T.M.C. Asser Press ; West Nyack, NY : Cambridge University Press [distributor], c2008. Call number: KZ6385 .D47x 2008

Publisher’s Description:
This book provides an in-depth analysis of the international legal aspects of the use of depleted uranium (DU) ammunition and armour. The military use of DU has been surrounded by considerable controversy, mainly as regards the health and environmental risks that such use entails. The debate about DU has thus far been highly polarised, with one end of the spectrum rejecting any risk whatsoever and the other end suggesting that the use of DU leads to severe health and environmental consequences, including Gulf-War syndrome, whenever it is used. Rather than settling these controversies, the book takes as a starting point a precautionary approach in light of the considerable remaining scientific uncertainties. It examines various principles and rules of international law, which would be at play if the health and environmental concerns regarding the use of DU were to materialize.

Jones, Bernie D. Fathers of conscience : mixed-race inheritance in the antebellum South. Athens : University of Georgia Press, c2009. Call number: KF4755 .J66 2009

Publisher’s Description:
Fathers of Conscience examines high-court decisions in the antebellum South that involved wills in which white male planters bequeathed property, freedom, or both to women of color and their mixed-race children. These men, whose wills were contested by their white relatives, had used trusts and estates law to give their slave partners and children official recognition and thus circumvent the law of slavery. The will contests that followed determined whether that elevated status would be approved or denied by courts of law.

Bernie D. Jones argues that these will contests indicated a struggle within the elite over race, gender, and class issues-over questions of social mores and who was truly family. Judges thus acted as umpires after a man's death, deciding whether to permit his attempts to provide for his slave partner and family. Her analysis of these differing judicial opinions on inheritance rights for slave partners makes an important contribution to the literature on the law of slavery in the United States.

Chiu, Iris H.-Y. Regulatory convergence in EU securities regulation.
Alphen Aan Den Rijn : Wolters Kluwer ; Frederick, MD : Sold and distributed in North, Central and South America by Aspen Pub., 2008. Call number: KJE2247 .C45 2008

Publisher’s Description:
This outstanding book offers a new approach to the legal issues raised by the drive for convergence in securities regulation. The author offers a deeply informed and insightful examination of the implications for regulatory and policy design if regulatory convergence were to be rigorously implemented. After setting the development of the idea of regulatory convergence in historical context and defining what the term means, she goes on to investigate the web of legal issues surrounding the concept and its implementation, including the following:
• the benefits and drawbacks of the existing regulatory competition between Member States;
• ground-up (waiting for divergences to evolve through competitive processes) versus top-down mandatory convergence;
• regulation of intermediaries;
• the regulation of financial market transparency (visibility of pre-trade and post-trade information) and its effect on the business model of stock exchanges and markets;
• interpretations of market abuse in Member States;
• the rise of multilateral trading facilities (MTFs);
• theories on multi-speed clustering among like-minded Member States;
• the role of the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR); and
• the relationship of national penalties and enforcement convergence.

Arguing that the current patchwork of primary Directives and Commission Regulations is unlikely to secure convergent textual law, the author suggests that a rigorous pursuit of regulatory convergence should be based on adopting a systemic structure in designing regulatory features to achieve convergence. She proposes that regulatory convergence should capture four aspects of the law sources of law, interpretation and administration, supervision of compliance, through an overarching ‘cybernetic’ model which focuses on theand enforcement selection, transduction, and effectuation of norms, as well as on information and feedback processes and securing compliance with the norms.

Berry, Ira R. and Robert P. Martin, eds. The pharmaceutical regulatory process.
2nd ed. New York : Informa Healthcare, c2008. Call number: KF2036.D7 P47 2008

Publisher’s Description:
Providing in-depth coverage of the procedures utilized by pharmaceutical companies for regulatory compliance, this reference describes the history and development of regulations, standards, and guidelines that affect pharmaceutical product approval and commercial sale in the United States-standing alone as the only authoritative guide to address the complex web of regulatory requirements, application processes, and quality control issues influencing the pharmaceutical industry.

Burton, Steven J. Elements of contract interpretation.
Oxford ; New York, N.Y. : Oxford University Press, c2009. Call number: KF801 .B874 2009

Publisher’s Description:
Unclear contracts are common, and a large number of litigated cases in the U.S. require clarification of the parties' agreement. The process of clarifying an unclear contract involves three legal tasks. A judge must first identify the terms to be interpreted, then must determine whether the terms are ambiguous and encompass the rival interpretations advanced by the parties. Finally, if the terms are ambiguous, a finder of fact must resolve the ambiguity by choosing between the rival interpretations. Performing these tasks often involves the question of what evidence may be considered. Further, the courts may decide contract interpretation issues based on the agreement's literal terms, or the parties' objective or subjective intentions.

Steven J. Burton's undertaking in Elements of Contract Interpretation is a comprehensive treatment of these issues. By identifying the concrete and legally provable elements that contract interpreters may use, he has written an invaluable resource for both practitioners and scholars alike. This book also proposes an optimal law of contract interpretation for the courts' consideration.

Wigfall Robinson, Mildred and Richard J. Bonnie, eds. Law touched our hearts : a generation remembers Brown v. Board of Education.
Nashville : Vanderbilt University Press, c2009. Call number: LC212.52 .L39 2009

Publisher’s Description:
In February 1954, President Eisenhower invited Chief Justice Warren to dinner at the White House. Among the guests were well-known opponents of school desegregation. During that evening, Eisenhower commented to Warren that "law and force cannot change a man's heart." Three months later, however, the Supreme Court handed down its unanimous decision in Brown, and the contributors to this book, like people across the country, were profoundly changed by it, even though many saw almost nothing change in their communities.

What Brown did was to elevate race from the country's dirty secret to its most urgent topic of conversation. This book stands alone in presenting, in one source, stories of black and white Americans, men and women, from all parts of the nation, who were public school students during the years immediately after Brown. All shared an epiphany. Some became aware of race and the burden of racial separation. Others dared to hope that the yoke of racial oppression would at last be lifted.

The editors surveyed 4750 law professors born between 1936 and 1954, received 1000 responses, and derived these forty essays from those willing to write personal accounts of their childhood experiences in the classroom and in their communities. Their moving stories of how Brown affected them say much about race relations then and now. They also provide a picture of how social change can shape the careers of an entire generation in one profession.

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in February 2009. The list is on the library's home page.

February Acquisitions List

In addition, here are two highlighted titles of particular interest:

Tamara Relis. Perceptions in litigation and mediation : lawyers, defendants, plaintiffs, and gendered parties.
Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Call number: K2390 .R45 2009

Publisher’s Description:
Grounded in interpretive theory and offering interdisciplinary insights from sociological, psychological, and gender studies, this book addresses the question - How do professional, lay, and gendered actors understand and experience case processing in litigation and mediation? Drawing on data from 131 interviews, questionnaires, and observations of plaintiffs, defendants, lawyers, and mediators involved in 64 fatality and medical injury cases, the book challenges dominant understandings of how formal legal processes and dispute resolution work in practice. In juxtaposing actors’ discourse on all sides of ongoing cases on issues such as expectations, needs, comprehensions of what plaintiffs seek from the legal system, objectives for mediation, and perceptions of what occurs during attempts at case resolution, the findings reveal inherent problems with the core workings of the legal system. By providing in-depth views on the micro-elements of case processing, the book uncovers important issues about formal and informal justice, the inextricability of disputants’ legal and extra-legal needs, and current paradigms relating to professional, lay, and gendered identities.

Malcolm Langford, ed. Social rights jurisprudence : emerging trends in international and comparative law.
Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Call number: K370 .S648 2008

Publisher’s Description:
In the space of two decades, social rights have emerged from the shadows and margins of human rights jurisprudence. The authors in this book provide a critical analysis of almost two thousand judgments and decisions from twenty-nine national and international jurisdictions. The breadth of the decisions is vast, from the resettlement of evictees to the regulation of private medical plans to the development of state programs to address poverty and illiteracy. The jurisprudence not only implicates our understanding of economic, social, and cultural rights, but also challenges the philosophical debates that question whether these rights can and should be justiciable.

Wayne Sandholtz & Kendall Stiles. International norms and cycles of change.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, c2009. Call number: KZ1261 .S26 2009

Publisher’s Description:
International lawyers and international relations scholars recognize that international norms change over time. Practices that were once permissible and even "normal" - like slavery, conquest, and wartime plundering - are now prohibited by international rules. Yet though we acknowledge norm change, we are just beginning to understand how and why international rules develop in the ways that they do. Wayne Sandholtz and Kendall Stiles sketch the primary theoretical perspectives on international norm change, the "legalization" and "transnational activist" approaches, and argue that both are limited by their focus on international rules as outcomes. The authors then present their "cycle theory," in which norm change is continual, a product of the constant interplay among rules, behavior, and disputes. Cycles of International Norm Change is the natural follow-on to Prohibiting Plunder, testing the cycle theory against ten empirical cases. The cases range from piracy and conquest, to terrorism, slavery, genocide, humanitarian intervention, and the right to democracy. The key finding is that, across long stretches of time and diverse substantive areas, norm change occurs via the cycle dynamic.

Cycles of International Norm Change further advances the authors' theoretical approach by arguing that international norms have been shaped by two main currents: sovereignty rules and liberal rules. Sovereignty rules are the necessary norms for establishing an international society of sovereign states and deal with the rights, prerogatives, and duties of states. Liberal rules are norms that emerged out of the Enlightenment and enshrine the basic value, dignity, and inherent rights of each person. Sandholtz and Stiles include five cases of sovereignty rules and five of liberal rules in order to reveal the broad cyclic pattern of international change in these two categories of rules.

Atkinson, Logan and Diana Majury, eds. Law, mystery, and the humanities : collected essays. Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, c2008. Call number: Literature and the Arts K487.C8 L3948 2008

Pubisher’s Description:
The trans-disciplinary study of law and the humanities is becoming a more widespread focus among scholars from a range of disciplines. Complementary in several major ways, concepts and theories of law can be used to formulate fresh ideas about the humanities, and vice versa. Law, Mystery, and the Humanities, a collection of essays by leading scholars, is based on the hypothesis that law has significant contributions to make to ongoing discussions of philosophical issues recurrent in the humanities.

The philosophical issues in question include the role of rationality in human experience, the problem of dissent, the persistence of suffering, and the possibility of transcendence. In each of these areas, law is used to add complexity and offer divergent perspectives, thus moving important questions in the humanities forward by introducing the possibility of alternative analysis. Ranging from discussions of detective fiction, Chomsky’s universal grammar, the poetry of Margaret Atwood, the Great Plague of London, and more, Law, Mystery, and the Humanities offers a unique examination of trans-disciplinary potential.

Naomi R. Cahn. Test tube families : why the fertility market needs legal regulation.
New York : New York University Press, c2009. Call number: KF3830 .C34 2009

Publisher’s Description:
The birth of the first test tube baby in 1978 focused attention on the sweeping advances in assisted reproductive technology (ART), which is now a multi-billion-dollar business in the United States. Sperm and eggs are bought and sold in a market that has few barriers to its skyrocketing growth. While ART has been an invaluable gift to thousands of people, creating new families, the use of someone elses genetic material raises complex legal and public policy issues that touch on technological anxiety, eugenics, reproductive autonomy, identity, and family structure. How should the use of gametic material be regulated? Should recipients be able to choose the best sperm and eggs? Should a child ever be able to discover the identity of her gamete donor? Who can claim parental rights?

Naomi R. Cahn explores these issues and many more in Test Tube Families, noting that although such questions are fundamental to the new reproductive technologies, there are few definitive answers provided by the law, ethics, or cultural norms. The regulatory void outside of minimal requirements for gametic testing and limited protection against deceptive marketing techniques used by fertility clinics creates thorny problems for all involved in the egg and sperm business.

As a new generation of donor kids comes of age, Test Tube Families calls for better regulation of ART. It exhorts legal and policy-making communities to cease applying piecemeal laws and instead create laws that sustain the fertility industry, yet protect the interests of donors, recipients, and the children that result from successful transfers.

Incorporating real-life stories to illustrate her arguments, Cahn provides specific suggestions for legal reforms. The book sets out a series of controversial proposals, including an end to donor anonymity and a plea for states to clarify parentage decisions. She also calls for the federal government to regulate ART processes to ensure that donors are adequately protected against exploitation, that recipients receive the gametes they have been promised, and that the market functions ethically as well as efficiently.

Deere, Carolyn. The implementation game : the TRIPS agreement and the global politics of intellectual property reform in developing countries.
Oxford : New York ; Oxford University Press, 2009. Call number: K1401.A41994 D44 2009

Publisher’s Description:
With the launch of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, its Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) emerged as a symbol of coercion in international economic relations. In the decade that followed, intellectual property became one of the most contentious topics of global policy debate. This book is the first full-length study of the politics surrounding what developing countries did to implement TRIPS and why.

Based on a review of the evidence from 1995 to 2007, this book emphasizes that developing countries exhibited considerable variation in their approach to TRIPS implementation. In particular, developing countries took varying degrees of advantage of the legal safeguards and options-commonly known as TRIPS 'flexibilities'--that the Agreement provides.

To explain this variation, this book argues that TRIPS implementation must be understood as a complex political game played out among developing country governments and a range of stakeholders-developed countries, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), and industry groups. The contested nature of the TRIPS bargain spurred competing efforts to revise the terms of TRIPS and to influence global IP regulation more broadly. The intensity of the implementation game was amplified by an awareness among the various stakeholders that the IP reforms developing countries pursued would influence these ongoing international negotiations. The book attributes the variation in TRIPS implementation to the interplay between these global IP debates, international power pressures, and political dynamics within developing countries. The book includes historical analysis, compilations of evidence, and analysis supported by examples from across the developing world.

Wasti, Tahir. The application of Islamic criminal law in Pakistan : Sharia in practice.
Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2009. Call number: KPL3952 .W37 2009

Publisher’s Description:
No legal system in the world has aroused as much public interest as Sharia. However, the discourse around Sharia law is largely focussed on its development and the theories, principles and rules that inform it. Less attention has been given to studying the consequences of its operation, particularly in the area of Islamic criminal law. Even fewer studies explore the actual practice of Islamic criminal law in contemporary societies. This book aims to fill these gaps in our understanding of Sharia law in practice. It deals specifically with the consequences of enforcing Islamic criminal law in Pakistan, providing an in-depth and critical analysis of the application of the Islamic law of Qisas and Diyat (retribution and blood money) in the Muslim world today. The empirical evidence adduced more broadly demonstrates the complications of applying traditional Sharia in a modern state.

Clawson, Rosalee A. and Eric N. Waltenburg. Legacy and legitimacy : black Americans and the Supreme Court.
Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2009. Call number: KF8748 .C425 2009

Publisher’s Description:
…Legacy and Legitimacy substantially advances understanding of Black Americans’ attitudes toward the Supreme Court, the Court’s ability to influence Blacks’ opinions about the legitimacy of public institutions and policies, and the role of media in shaping Blacks’ judgments.

Drawing on legitimacy theory—which explains the acceptance of or tolerance for controversial policies—the authors begin by reexamining the significance of “diffuse support” in establishing legitimacy. They provide a useful overview of the literature on legitimacy and a concise history of the special relationship between Blacks and the Court. They investigate the influences of group attitudes and media “framing.” And they employ data from large-scale surveys to show that Blacks with greater levels of diffuse support for the Court are more likely to adopt positions consistent with Court rulings.

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in January 2009. The list is on the library's home page.

January Acquisitions List

In addition, here are five highlighted titles of particular interest:

Federal Judges Revealed by Domnarski, William.
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, c2009. Call number: KF372 .D66 2009

From the Product Description:

The power and influence of the federal judiciary has been widely discussed and understood. And while there have been a fair number of institutional studies-studies of individual district courts or courts of appeal--there have been very few studies of the judiciary that emphasize the judges themselves. Federal Judges Revealed considers approximately one hundred oral histories of Article Three judges, extracting the most important information, and organizing it around a series of presented topics such as "How judges write their opinions" and "What judges believe make a good lawyer."

The principle of legality in international and comparative criminal law by Kenneth S. Gallant.
Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009. Call number: K5165 .G35 2009

From the Publisher’s Description:

This book fills a major gap in the scholarly literature concerning international criminal law, comparative criminal law, and human rights law. The principle of legality (non-retroactivity of crimes and punishments and related doctrines) is fundamental to criminal law and human rights law. Yet this is the first book-length study of the status of legality in international law – in international criminal law, international human rights law, and international humanitarian law. This is also the first book to survey legality/non-retroactivity in all national constitutions, developing the patterns of implementation of legality in the various legal systems (e.g., Common Law, Civil Law, Islamic Law, Asian Law) around the world. This is a necessary book for any scholar, practitioner, and library in the area of international, criminal, comparative, human rights, or international humanitarian law.

We dissent : talking back to the Rehnquist court : eight cases that subverted civil liberties and civil rights Edited by Michael Avery.
New York : New York University Press, c2009. Call number: KF4749.A2 W4 2009
Contributors: Michael Avery, Erwin Chemerinsky,Marjorie Cohn, Tracey Maclin, Eva Paterson, Jamin Raskin, David Rudovsky, Susan Kiyomi Serrano, and Abbe Smith.

From the Publisher’s Description:

The lawyers and legal commentators who contribute to We Dissent unanimously agree that during Chief Justice William Rehnquists nineteen-year tenure, the Supreme Court failed to adequately protect civil liberties and civil rights. This is evident in majority opinions written for numerous cases heard by the Rehnquist Court, and eight of those cases are re-examined here, with contributors offering dissents to the Courts decisions.… Each chapter focuses on a different case — ranging from torture to search and seizure, and from racial profiling to the freedom of political expression — with contributors summarizing the case and the decision, and then offering their own dissent to the majority opinion. For some cases featured in the book, the Courts majority decisions were unanimous, so readers can see here for the first time what a dissent might have looked like. In other cases, contributors offer alternative dissents to the minority opinion, thereby widening the scope of opposition to key civil liberties decisions made by the Rehnquist Court.

Law in medieval Russia by Ferdinand Feldbrugge.
Leiden ; Boston : Martinus Nijhoff Pub., 2009. Call number: KJC510.A15 L39 no.59

From the Publisher’s Description:

Much of what we know about the colourful Russian middle ages comes from legal sources: the treaties of Russian-Scandinavian warlords with the Byzantine emperors, the gradual penetration of Christianity and Byzantine institutions, the endless game of war and peace among the numerous regional princes, the activities of Hanseatic merchants in the wealthy city-republic of Novgorod, the curious relationships between the Mongol conquerors and Russian rulers and church dignitaries, etc. And, at the even further fringes of medieval Europe, there were the Christian kingdoms of Armenia and Georgia, squeezed between the Islamic empires of Iran and Turkey, but each possessing their elaborate and original legal systems. A discussion of more general questions of legal history and legal anthropology precedes the treatment of these various topics.

Law and practice of EU external relations : salient features of a changing landscape Edited by Alan Dashwood, Marc Maresceau.
Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008. Call number: KJE5057 .L39 2008

From the Publisher’s Description:

Expanding European Union activity on the international scene has led to development of the legal concepts, principles and rules that govern it. External relations law and practice have also been affected by events within the EU. This volume takes stock of the recent developments in the external relations law and practice of the EC/EU and investigates the increasing interaction between these different fields of Union competence. The first part of this book addresses issues that are broadly constitutional or institutional in character. The second part deals with various aspects of substantive external relations considered in a geographical or geo-political perspective. The third part selects two specific substantive law areas – intellectual property law and environment law – as examples which illustrate the specific relationship between domestic policy and external relations.

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in December 2008. The list is on the library's home page.

December Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in November 2008. The list is on the library's home page.

November Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in October 2008. The list is on the library's home page.

October Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in September 2008. The list is on the library's home page.

September Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in August 2008. The list is on the library's home page.

August Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in July 2008. The list is on the library's home page.

July Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in June 2008. The list is on the library's home page.

June Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in May 2008. The list is also on the Library's home page.

May Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the Law Library acquired in April 2008. The list is on the library's home page.

April Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in March 2008. The list is also on the library's home page.

March Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in February 2008. The list is also on the library's home page.

February Acquisitions

The law library now has full-text access to over 150 legal publications from Cambridge University Press and Wolters Kluwer Law & Business via the MyiLibrary platform at: http://www.lib.umn.edu/get/myilibrary.

These books offer researchers new opportunities to discover content by searching for terms and concepts throughout the collection.

We are very interested in feedback from patrons who use these new e-books. Please send your comments to lawlib@umn.edu.

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in January 2008. The list is also on the library's home page.

January Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in December 2007. The list is also on the library's home page.

December Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in November 2007. The list is also on the library's home page.

November Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in October 2007. The list is also on the library's home page.

October Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in September 2007. The list is also on the library's home page.

September Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in August 2007. The list is also on the library's home page.

August Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in July 2007. The list is also on the library's home page.

July Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in June 2007. The list is also on the library's home page.

June Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in May 2007. The list is also on the library's home page.

May Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in April 2007. The list is also on the library's home page.

April Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in March 2007. The list is also on the library's home page.

March Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in February 2007. The list is also on the library's home page.

February Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in January 2007. The list is also on the library's home page.

January Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in December 2006. The list is also on the library's home page.

December Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in November 2006. The list is also on the library's home page.

November Acquisitions

Here is the list of new titles the law library acquired in October 2006. The list is also on the library's home page.

October Acquisitions

The Law Library is pleased to announce its subscription to the new online version of the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition.

The online version provides users access through a browsable table of contents and by searching the full-text of the Manual using a Google powered keyword search engine. The popular Chicago Style Q & A which features answers by the editing department at the University of Chicago to questions related to the Manual is also available and keyword searchable.

Users can access the Chicago Manual of Style Online from computers that are able to connect to the Law School Network within Mondale Hall. Click on the link for the Chicago Manual of Style from the Law Library's Electronic Resources Directory web page . University of Minnesota Law faculty, students and staff can also access the Manual from the Law Library's Intranet page (click on Chicago Manual of Style from the Electronic Resources menu).

If you have any questions regarding the Chicago Manual of Style Online, please contact the Law Library Reference Office, 612-625-4309 or law-ref@umn.edu.

The Law Library is pleased to announce its subscription to the new Oxford University Press database, International Law in Domestic Courts (IDLC).

This database contains selected cases from over sixty-five jurisdictions, enabling researchers to compare how different countries interpret international law. Cases include expert commentary and English translation of key passages, along with the original opinion in the vernacular.

To access the database, use the Law School Intranet. From the Law Library’s intranet page, select International Law in Domestic Courts. If you have any questions about ILDC, please contact Mary Rumsey the Foreign, Comparative & International Law Librarian.