October Acquisitions List

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

Reinier Kraakman ... [et al.]. The Anatomy of Corporate Law: A Comparative and Functional Approach. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009.
Reserve K1315 .A53 2009

Publisher's Description: The authors start from the premise that corporate (or company) law across jurisdictions addresses the same three basic agency problems: (1) the opportunism of managers vis-a-vis shareholders; (2) the opportunism of controlling shareholders vis-a-vis minority shareholders; and (3) the opportunism of shareholders as a class vis-a-vis other corporate constituencies, such as corporate creditors and employees. Every jurisdiction must address these problems in a variety of contexts, framed by the corporation's internal dynamics and its interactions with the product, labor, capital, and takeover markets. The authors' central claim, however, is that corporate (or company) forms are fundamentally similar and that, to a surprising degree, jurisdictions pick from among the same handful of legal strategies to address the three basic agency issues.

This book explains in detail how and why the principal European jurisdictions, Japan, and the United States sometimes select identical legal strategies to address a given corporate law problem, and sometimes make divergent choices. After an introductory discussion of agency issues and legal strategies, the book addresses the basic governance structure of the corporation, including the powers of the board of directors and the shareholders meeting. Itproceeds to creditor protection measures, related-party transactions, and fundamental corporate actions such as mergers and charter amendments. Finally, it concludes with an examination of friendly acquisitions, hostile
takeovers, and the regulation of the capital markets.

/ Steven H. Shiffrin. The Religious Left and Church-state Relations. Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2009.
KF4783 .S56 2009

Publisher's Description: In The Religious Left and Church-State Relations, noted constitutional law scholar Steven Shiffrin argues that the religious left, not the secular left, is best equipped to lead the battle against the religious right on questions of church and state in America today. Explaining that the chosen rhetoric of secular liberals is poorly equipped to argue against religious conservatives, Shiffrin shows that all progressives, religious and secular, must appeal to broader values promoting religious liberty. He demonstrates that the separation of church and state serves to protect religions from political manipulation while tight connections between church and state compromise the integrity of religious institutions.Shiffrin discusses the pluralistic foundations of the religion clauses in the First Amendment and asserts that the clauses cannot be confined to the protection of liberty, equality, or equal liberty. He explores the constitutional framework of religious liberalism, applying it to controversial examples, including the Pledge of Allegiance, the government's use of religious symbols, the teaching of evolution in public schools, and school vouchers. Shiffrin examines how the approaches of secular liberalism toward church-state relations have been misguided philosophically and politically, and he illustrates why theological arguments hold an important democratic position--not in courtrooms or halls of government, but in the public dialogue. The book contends that the great issue of American religious politics is not whether religions should be supported at all, but how religions can best be strengthened and preserved.

Gibson, James L. Overcoming Historical Injustices: Land Reconciliation in South Africa. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009.
KTL3056 .G53 2009

Publisher's Description: Overcoming Historical Injustices is the last entry in James L. Gibson's "overcoming" trilogy on South Africa's transformation from apartheid to democracy. Focusing on the issue of historical land dispossessions - the taking of African land under colonialism and apartheid - this book investigates the judgments South Africans make about the fairness of their country's past. For instance, should land seized under apartheid be returned today to its rightful owner? Gibson's research zeroes in on group identities and attachments as the thread that connects people to the past. Even when individuals have experienced no direct harm in the past, they care about the fairness of the treatment of their group to the extent that they identify with that group. Gibson's analysis shows that land issues in contemporary South Africa are salient, volatile, and enshrouded in symbols and, most important, that interracial differences in understandings of the past and preferences for the future are profound.

The database, originally created by Harold Spaeth of the Michigan State University College of Law, currently contains 247 pieces of information for each case, roughly broken down into six categories:

(1) identification variables (e.g., citations and docket numbers);
(2) background variables (e.g., how the Court took jurisdiction, origin and source of the case, the reason the Court agreed to decide it);
(3) chronological variables (e.g., the date of decision, term of Court, natural court);
(4) substantive variables (e.g., legal provisions, issues, direction of decision);
(5) outcome variables (e.g., disposition of the case, winning party, formal alteration of precedent, declaration of unconstitutionality); and
(6) voting and opinion variables (e.g., how the individual justices voted, their opinions and interagreements).

The new website makes this data much more accessible to researchers with various levels of expertise. A user-friendly interface allows for simple analysis by novices, while the site also contains downloadable formats for analysis in a variety of statistical packages.

With funding from the National Science Foundation, the contributors have begun the process of coding all cases from the court's first decision in 1792 to 1952, and will be regularly posting updates of this back-dating project over the next four years.

Library Systems that WILL BE UNAVAILABLE for the duration of scheduled downtime:

Library Systems EXPECTED TO REMAIN AVAILABLE:

For additional details from the University Libraries, please visit: http://www.lib.umn.edu/downtime.phtml

Library Systems that WILL BE UNAVAILABLE beginning 7pm on Friday, October 23 and through the duration of scheduled downtime:

Library Systems EXPECTED TO REMAIN AVAILABLE:

For additional details from the University Libraries, please visit: http://www.lib.umn.edu/downtime.phtml.

David Weissbrodt served as a senior editor of the Encyclopedia and authored the following entries:

The Encyclopedia provides original analytical articles covering standard subjects such as the right to health and health care, Amnesty International, the Balkan wars, and former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, and also offers innovative coverage of such subjects as the Internet, intellectual property rights, the American civil rights movement, globalization, and Brazil in historical context. Focusing primarily on developments since 1945, it offers an unrivaled reference source for students and researchers; even human rights experts are likely to find much original material and keen insights in many of the entries."

David Weissbrodt, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin et al., International Human Rights: Law, Policy, and Process (LexisNexis, 4th ed., 2009)
Call Number: Law Library Reserve K3240 .W45x 2009

Publisher's Description: This comprehensive work provides an introduction to human rights law, policy, and process. International Human Rights begins with an overview, then discusses drafting and ratifying treaties, establishing institutions, using procedures for monitoring compliance and responding to gross violations, using adjudicative remedies, applying refugee and international labor law, relating human rights norms to terrorism, and exploring how the causes of violations can be used to improve human rights compliance. The Fourth Edition addresses a number of significant developments in the human rights arena including:

Emergence of international criminal law as a potential response to crimes against humanity; Emergence of the United Nations Security Council as a significant human rights actor and the challenges it faces; The role of human rights norms in responding to and regulating state responses to terrorism; The capacity of human rights to respond to abuses by corporate actors; The ability of human rights to respond to and account for violations committed in the context of ethnic hatred, internal conflict, and intrastate violence; and The challenges faced by non-government human rights organizations in the post 9/11 context.

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.

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.

Law School 100 is an iPhone app that ranks 100 law schools in the United States and provides capsule profiles of each school. It's produced by LawTV Inc., the publisher of The Law School 100. "Even for aspiring law students, the app won't blow their budget. The cost is just 99 cents," writes Robert Ambrogi in Picking a Law School? There's an App for That. Also a useful tool, I guess, for admissions staff trying to convince college students to apply to their law school.

Source: Law Librarian Blog

• Great .Gov Web Sites SPECIAL REPORT: "10 sites that take online government to the next level" by Joab Jackson, Government Computer News (Jul 27, 2009)

Other sites GCN lists include: data.gov, The California Metropolitan Transportation Commission's Transit.511.org, the U.S. State Department, the State of Utah, and Science.gov.

While the description of FDsys in the GCN article has no new information for those who have been following its development for years, its presence in the list is notable and important for at least two reasons. First, it is the only one of the ten that emphasizes permanence and long term access.

Second, it is revealing to see the technologies that GCN lists for each site. Every site on the list is noted for use of technologies that provide good access and rich content. These include the current batch of usual suspects, from Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight, to RSS and Cascading Style sheets; from Wikipedia and Twitter, to Google keyhole Markup Language and ArcGIS. But only FDsys also includes technologies that are specifically designed for long-term preservation and for authenticating content: The Reference Model for an Open Archival Information System, and "Digital signatures."

Now if we could just combine that with digital deposit into FDLP libraries, we'd be able to multiply the technical guarantees of long-term free public access to government information by the number of participating FDLP libraries.

Source: Free Government Info blog

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

• The announcement (pdf)

• Introduction to the NLRB Public Website ("demonstrates how to find published decisions and administrative memoranda, how to ask questions via the website or to speak to a person, as well as how to use E-Gov, the Agency's on-line services such as E-Docket, E-Filing, online forms, and E-FOIA requests."

• How to Use CiteNet (CiteNet is a free public service offered by the Agency to assist labor law professionals and the public with their legal research needs.)

Source: Free Government Info

FreeDemographicsData.com is your source for statistics about Cities, Counties, Zip Codes and the United States. Find free, updated US Census data and comparisons. Lookup statistics about 2009 demographics, population, income, gender, housing value, household size, education and more. This has been added to Internet Demographics Subject Tracer™ Information Blog.

Source: Marcus P Zillman blog