This book transcends current debate on government regulation by lucidly outlining how regulations can be a fruitful combination of persuasion and sanctions. The regulation of business by the United States government is often ineffective despite being more adversarial in tone than in other nations. The authors draw on both empirical studies of regulation from around the world and modern game theory to illustrate innovative solutions to this problem. Their ideas include an argument for the empowerment of private and public interest groups in the regulatory process and a provocative discussion...

This book transcends current debate on government regulation by lucidly outlining how regulations can be a fruitful combination of persuasion and sanctions. The regulation of business by the United States government is often ineffective despite being more adversarial in tone than in other nations. The authors draw on both empirical studies of regulation from around the world and modern game theory to illustrate innovative solutions to this problem. Their ideas include an argument for the empowerment of private and public interest groups in the regulatory process and a provocative discussion...

Plea bargaining is one of the most striking features of American courts. The vast majority of criminal convictions today are produced through bargained pleas. Where does the practice come from? Whose interests does it serve? Often plea bargaining is imagined as a corruption of the court during the post-World War II years, paradoxically rewarding those who appear guilty rather than those claiming innocence. Yet, as Mary Vogel argues in this pathbreaking history, plea bargaining's roots are deeper and more distinctly American than is commonly supposed.

During the Age of Jackson, amidst...

Why do some lawyers devote themselves to a given social movement or political cause? How are such deeds of individual commitment and personal belief justly executed, given the ideals of disinterested professional service to which lawyers are (in theory, at least) supposed to adhere? What can we learn from such lawyers about the relationship between law and politics?
Cause Lawyering is a wise and varied collection of responses to these questions, featuring a number of distinguished legal scholars concerned with anti-poverty lawyers, lawyers who work against capital punishment,...

This volume brings together contextually sensitive, cross-cultural, and comparative research that analyzes the ways in which cause lawyering is influencing, and being influenced by, the disaggregation of state power associated with democratization and globalization.

This volume sets recent developments in the regulation and deregulation of gambling into three primary forms-- betting, gaming, and lotteries--against an account of their social and legal history. Based upon Home Office files and contemporary accounts, this book evaluates how the law was used to control and suppress popular gambling and then how and why prohibition gave way to the recognition that regulation offered a more effective method of control. The book concludes with an evaluation of the Gambling Bill, a draft of which was published in 2003 aiming to give effect to the Government's...

The Dutch penal system has for many years been held up to the world for its humane and enlightened approach to the criminal offender. Providing an eye-opening examination of both the policy and practice of the Dutch prison system, Downs includes a fascinating comparison with prison systems in England and Wales.

The issue of how assets are distributed after death is of increasing significance for larger numbers of people. In this original and path-breaking study, the authors examine the principle means through which people plan to dispose of their assets after death: by the use of wills. By offering an empirical study of 800 English wills, the book identifies significant patterns of bequeathing among a cross-section of the population, and not just among those sections of society whno enjoy substantial wealth. This leads us to focus upon what wills tell us about the family and kin relationships, and...

Discretion is a pervasive phenomenon in legal systems. It is of concern to lawyers because it can be a force for advancing the broad purposes of law and subverting them. For social scientists this phenomenon is an important form of decision-making behavior, one in which legal rules are merely one force in a field of pressures and constraints that drive certain courses of action or inaction. This book presents a variety of analyses of legal discretion by lawyers and social scientists who have made discretion and its uses a central part of their scholarly concerns.

The English legal profession, uncharacteristically, was often in the headlines during the 1990s. Reforms initiated by a Conservative Lord Chancellor and extended by his Labour successor transformed traditions, over the vigorous objections of the judiciary, Bar, and Law Society. Rapid market developments enriched some barristers and solicitors while squeezing others. The two professional associations confronted crises in self-regulation and governance. This book mines that tumultuous period for insights into the prospects of professionalism in the 21st century.