Kategoria BISAC: Law >> Courts - General

The Law As It Could Be gathers Fiss's most important work on procedure, adjudication and public reason, introduced by the author and including contextual introductions for each piece--some of which are among the most cited in Twentieth Century legal studies. Fiss surveys the legal terrain between the landmark cases of Brown v. Board of Education and Bush v. Gore to reclaim the legal legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. He argues forcefully for a vision of judges as instruments of public reason and of the courts as a means of shaping society in the image of the...

Seldom has American law seen a more towering figure than Chief Justice John Marshall. Indeed, Marshall is almost universally regarded as the -father of the Supreme Court- and -the jurist who started it all.-

Yet even while acknowledging the indelible stamp Marshall put on the Supreme Court, it is possible--in fact necessary--to examine the pre-Marshall Court, and its justices, to gain a true understanding of the origins of American constitutionalism. The ten essays in this tightly edited volume were especially commissioned for the book, each by the leading authority on his or her...

Seldom has American law seen a more towering figure than Chief Justice John Marshall. Indeed, Marshall is almost universally regarded as the -father of the Supreme Court- and -the jurist who started it all.-

Yet even while acknowledging the indelible stamp Marshall put on the Supreme Court, it is possible--in fact necessary--to examine the pre-Marshall Court, and its justices, to gain a true understanding of the origins of American constitutionalism. The ten essays in this tightly edited volume were especially commissioned for the book, each by the leading authority on his or her...

Few institutions have become as ferociously fought over in democratic politics as the courts. While political criticism of judges in this country goes back to its inception, today's intensely ideological assault is nearly unprecedented.

Spend any amount of time among the writings of contemporary right-wing critics of judicial power, and you are virtually assured of seeing repeated complaints about the -imperial judiciary.- American conservatives contend not only that judicial power has expanded dangerously in recent decades, but that liberal judges now willfully write their policy...

Rape law reform has been a stunning failure. Defense lawyers persist in emphasizing victims' characters over defendants' behavior. Reform's goals of increasing rape report and conviction rates have generally not been achieved. In Rape and the Culture of the Courtroom, Andrew Taslitz locates the cause of rape reform failure in the language lawyers use, and the cultural stories upon which they draw to dominate rape victims in the courtroom.

Cultural stories about rape, Taslitz argues, such as the provocatively dressed woman -asking for it, - are at the root of many...

In January 1973, the Supreme Court's opinion in Roe v. Wade struck down most of the country's abortion laws, and held for the first time that women had a constitutional right to safe and legal abortions. Three decades later, Roe v. Wade remains one of the Supreme Court's most controversial decisions, and political struggles over abortion rights still divide American politics. Roe has emerged as a central issue in federal judicial nominations, becoming a powerful symbol in debates about judicial restraint, judicial activism, and the proper role of courts in a democratic...

The book opens with a brief account of the segregation decisions of 1954 and 1955 and with their relationship to a changing interpretation of the equal protection clause of the Constitution. Later chapters show that defiance of the highest tribunal has had many precedents.

Public confidence in American criminal courts is at an all-time low. Victims, communities, and even offenders view courts as unable to respond adequately to complex social and legal problems including drugs, prostitution, domestic violence, and quality-of-life crime. Even many judges and attorneys think that the courts produce assembly-line justice.

Increasingly embraced by even the most hard-on-crime jurists, problem-solving courts offer an effective alternative. As documented by Greg Berman and John Feinblatt both of whom were instrumental in setting up New York s Midtown Community...