The list is also available on the Library's home page.

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

Austin, Raymond Darrel. Navajo courts and Navajo common law : a tradition of tribal self-governance / Raymond D. Austin ; foreword by Robert A. Williams, Jr. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, c2009.
KF8228.N3 A95 2009

Publisher's Description: The Navajo Nation court system is the largest and most established tribal legal system in the world. Since the landmark 1959 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Williams v. Lee that affirmed tribal court authority over reservation-based claims, the Navajo Nation has been at the vanguard of a far-reaching, transformative jurisprudential movement among Indian tribes in North America and indigenous peoples around the world to retrieve and use traditional values to address contemporary legal issues.

A justice on the Navajo Nation Supreme Court for sixteen years, Justice Raymond D. Austin has been deeply involved in the movement to develop tribal courts and tribal law as effective means of modern self-government. He has written foundational opinions that have established Navajo common law and, throughout his legal career, has recognized the benefit of tribal customs and traditions as tools of restorative justice.

In Navajo Courts and Navajo Common Law, Justice Austin considers the history and implications of how the Navajo Nation courts apply foundational Navajo doctrines to modern legal issues. He explains key Navajo foundational concepts like Hózhó (harmony), K'é (peacefulness and solidarity), and K'éí (kinship) both within the Navajo cultural context and, using the case method of legal analysis, as they are adapted and applied by Navajo judges in virtually every important area of legal life in the tribe.

In addition to detailed case studies, Justice Austin provides a broad view of tribal law, documenting the development of tribal courts as important institutions of indigenous self-governance and outlining how other indigenouspeoples, both in North America and elsewhere around the world, can draw on traditional precepts to achieve self-determination and self-government, solve community problems, and control their own futures.

Crockin, Susan L. Legal conceptions : the evolving law and policy of assisted reproductive technologies / Susan L. Crockin and Howard W. Jones, Jr. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.
K3611.A77 C76 2010

Publisher's Description: Written by a medical and a legal pioneer in the field, this book comprehensively reviews and analyzes the evolving law and policy issues surrounding assisted reproductive technologies. Dr. Howard W. Jones, Jr., founder of the first in vitro fertilization program in the United States, offers medical commentary, while attorney Susan L. Crockin, author of the column "Legally Speaking" in ASRM News (the newsletter of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine), provides legal analysis.

The book opens with a legal primer and timelines sketching the medical and legal milestones in the history of reproductive technology and law. Each chapter provides a case--by--case discussion of the relevant law, as well as cogent medical and legal commentary and analysis on a particular substantive area. Chapter topics deal with a vast array of issues, including artificial insemination, sperm and egg donation, traditional and gestational surrogacy, posthumous reproduction, same--sex parentage, genetics, cryopreservation and embryo litigation, discrimination and access to reproductive care, professional liability, stem cell research, and abortion.

In discussing the medical and legal issues surrounding these topics, Crockin and Jones reveal what has gone right and what at times has gone terribly wrong for both the families and the professionals involved. They make clear that technological advancements have far outpaced the laws and policies in place to protect all who use them.

This book makes a timely contribution to current debates over the legal and policy issues raised by the highly publicized birth of octuplets in California and the embryo legislation activity taking place in many states. It offers information and insight to policymakers, medical and legal professionals, patients and other participants, and everyone else interested in the history and future direction of the field.

The UN Genocide Convention : a commentary / edited by Paola Gaeta. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009.
K5302 .U55 2009

Publisher's Description: The Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December 1948, is one of the most important instruments of contemporary international law. It was drafted in the aftermath of the Nuremberg trial to give flesh and blood to the well-known dictum of the International Military Tribunal, according to which 'Crimes against international law are committed by men, not by abstract entities, and only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of international law be enforced'. At Nuremberg, senior state officials who had committed heinous crimes on behalf or with the protection of their state were brought to trial for the first time in history and were held personally accountable regardless of whether they acted in their official capacity.

The drafters of the Convention on Genocide crystallized the results of the Nuremberg trial and thus ensured its legacy. The Convention established a mechanism to hold those who committed or participated in the commission of genocide, the crime of crimes, criminally responsible. Almost fifty years before the adoption of the Rome Statute, the Convention laid the foundations for the establishment of the International Criminal Court. It also obliged its Contracting Parties to criminalize and punish genocide.

This book is a much-needed Commentary on the Genocide Convention. It analyzes and interprets the Convention thematically, thoroughly covering every article, drawing on the Convention's travaux preparatoires and subsequent developments in international law. The most complex and important provisions of the Convention, including the definitions of genocideand genocidal acts, have more than one contribution dedicated to them, allowing the Commentary to explore all aspects of these concepts. The Commentary also goes beyond the explicit provisions of the Convention to discuss topics such as the retroactive application of the Convention, its status in customary international law and its future.

The list is also available on the Library's home page.

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

Ford, Lisa, 1974- Settler sovereignty : jurisdiction and indigenous people in America and Australia, 1788-1836 / Lisa Ford. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2010.
K3247 .F67 2010

Publisher's Description: In a brilliant comparative study of law and imperialism, Lisa Ford argues that modern settler sovereignty emerged when settlers in North America and Australia defined indigenous theft and violence as crime.

This occurred, not at the moment of settlement or federation, but in the second quarter of the nineteenth century when notions of statehood, sovereignty, empire, and civilization were in rapid, global flux. Ford traces the emergence of modern settler sovereignty in everyday contests between settlers and indigenous people in early national Georgia and the colony of New South Wales. In both places before 1820, most settlers and indigenous people understood their conflicts as war, resolved disputes with diplomacy, and relied on shared notions like reciprocity and retaliation to address frontier theft and violence. This legal pluralism, however, was under stress as new, global statecraft linked sovereignty to the exercise of perfect territorial jurisdiction. In Georgia, New South Wales, and elsewhere, settler sovereignty emerged when, at the same time in history, settlers rejected legal pluralism and moved to control or remove indigenous peoples.

The Guantanamo lawyers : inside a prison outside the law / edited by Mark P. Denbeaux and Jonathan Hafetz ; with Grace A. Brown ... [et al.]. New York : New York University Press, c2009.
KZ6495 .G83 2009

Publisher's Description: Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the United States imprisoned more than seven hundred and fifty men at its naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. These men, ranging from teenage boys to men in their eighties from over forty different countries, were detained for years without charges, trial, and a fair hearing. Without any legal status or protection, they were truly outside the law: imprisoned in secret, denied communication with their families, and subjected to extreme isolation, physical and mental abuse, and, in some instances, torture.

These are the detainees' stories, told by their lawyers because the prisoners themselves were silenced. It took habeas counsel more than two years--and a ruling from the United States Supreme Court--to finally gain the right to visit and talk to their clients at Guantánamo. Even then, lawyers were forced to operate under severe restrictions designed to inhibit communication and envelop the prison in secrecy. In time, however, lawyers were able to meet with their clients and bring the truth about Guantánamo to the world.

The Guantánamo Lawyers contains over one hundred personal narratives from attorneys who have represented detainees held at Guantánamo as well as at other lawless detention centers such as Afghanistan's Bagram Air Base. Mark Denbeaux and Jonathan Hafetz--themselves lawyers for detainees--collected stories that cover virtually every facet of Guantánamo, and the litigation it sparked. Together, these moving, powerful voices create a historical record of Guantánamo's legal, human, and moral failings, and provide a window into America's catastrophic effortto create a prison beyond the law.

International trade regulation and the mitigation of climate change : World Trade Forum / edited by Thomas Cottier, Olga Nartova and Sadeq Z. Bigdeli. Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009.
K3943.A6 I58 2009

Publisher's Description: What can trade regulation contribute towards ameliorating the GHG emissions and reducing their concentrations in the atmosphere? This collection of essays analyses options for climate-change mitigation through the lens of the trade lawyer. By examining international law, and in particular the relevant WTO agreements, the authors address the areas of potential conflict between international trade law and international law on climate mitigation and, where possible, suggest ways to strengthen mutual supportiveness between the two regimes. They do so taking into account the drivers of human-induced climate change in energy markets and of consumption.

The list is also available on the Library's home page.

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

Elkins, Zachary, 1970- The endurance of national constitutions / Zachary Elkins, Tom Ginsburg, James Melton. Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009.
K3165 .E45 2009

Publisher's Description: Constitutions are supposed to provide an enduring structure for politics. Yet only half live more than nineteen years. Why is it that some constitutions endure while others do not? In The Endurance of National Constitutions, Zachary Elkins, Tom Ginsburg, and James Melton examine the causes of constitutional endurance from an institutional perspective. Supported by an original set of cross-national historical data, theirs is the first comprehensive study of constitutional mortality. They show that whereas constitutions are imperiled by social and political crises, certain aspects of a constitution's design can lower the risk of death substantially. Thus, to the extent that endurance is desirable - a question that the authors also subject to scrutiny - the decisions of founders take on added importance.

Zedalis, Rex J. The legal dimensions of oil and gas in Iraq : current reality and future prospects / Rex J. Zedalis. New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009.
KMJ3366 .Z43 2009

Publisher's Description: This book is the first and only comprehensive examination of current and future legal principles designed to govern oil and gas activity in Iraq. This study provides a thorough-going review of every conceivable angle on Iraqi oil and gas law, from relevant provisions of the Iraqi Constitution of 2005; to legislative measures comprising the oil and gas framework law, the revenue sharing law, and the laws to reconstitute the Iraq National Oil Company and reorganize the Ministry of Oil; to the Kurdistan Regional Government's 2007 Oil and Gas Law No. (22) and its accompanying Model Production Sharing Contract; and to the apposite rules of international law distilled from both controlling UN resolutions addressing Iraq and more generally applicable principles of international law. This text is essential to the reading collection of every practitioner, business executive, government official, academic, public policy maven, and individual citizen with an interest in the details and controversial aspects of Iraqi energy law.

Dorresteijn, A. F. M. European corporate law / Adriaan Dorresteijn ... [et al.]. 2nd ed. Austin : Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, c2009.
KJE2045 .D67x 2009

Publisher's Desccription: In the past few years, the European Commission and the European Court of Justice have each in their own way contributed to a resurgence of the harmonisation programme in corporate law. The Court's trilogy of its Centros, Überseering and Inspire Art judgements have marked a fundamental policy switch regarding the right of establishment for companies and other legal entities. And, perhaps most significantly, the Commission is now encouraged to launch a draft Statute for a European Private Company which it is hoped will be a supranational business organisation as was originally envisaged for the SE. However, notwithstanding these developments, at the national level diversity is still the key word for those who try to understand corporate laws within the EU.

As in the First Edition (1995) of this well-known book, the authors demonstrate that analysis and comparison of national corporate laws on a number of issues yield highly valuable general principles and observations, not least because business organisations, wherever located, tend to show a fundamentally similar set of legal characteristics. To its original selection of six representative jurisdictions - Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom - the Second Edition now adds Poland, thus including an Eastern European perspective to supplement those of continental Europe and the common law system of the UK.

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.

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.