Featured Acquisitions - Alexander Campbell King Law Library

Featured Acquisitions - August 2008


		Courts & Congress : America's Unwritten Constitution by William J. Quirk ; with a foreword by Ralph Nader New Brunswick, N.J. : Transaction Publishers, c2008 KF5130 .Q57 2008 Balcony Quirk maintains that what he calls the Happy Convention, an informal and unwritten rearrangement of "passing the buck" of government powers, is done to avoid blame and approval ratings becoming lower for a particular person or party. For example, the Happy Convention assigns the power to declare and make war to the President. Congress and the Court play a supporting role - Congress, when requested, gives the president a blank check to use force - the Court throws out any challenges to the legality of the war. Everyone wins if the war avoids disaster. If it turns out badly, the president is held accountable. His ratings fall, reelection is out of the question, congressmen say he lied to them; his party is likely to lose the next election. In this way, Quirk reminds us that the Happy Convention is not what the Founders intended for us. For democracy to work properly, the American people have to know what options they have.
		Rights in the Balance : Free Press, Fair Trial, and Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart by Mark R. Scherer ; foreword by James W. Hewitt Lubbock, Tex. : Texas Tech University Press, c2008 KF9223.5 .S34 2008 Balcony On a horrific night in October 1975, Erwin Simants brutally murdered the Henry Kellie family in tiny Sutherland, Nebraska. Massive media attention to the grisly story soon spawned a historic collision between two of the most cherished American constitutional protections - the First Amendment's guarantee of a free press and the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of a criminal defendant's right to a fair trial before an impartial jury. Rights in the Balance is the story of the complex legal battles set in motion that tragic night on the western Nebraska plains. In juxtaposition to the criminal prosecution of Erwin Simants, Mark Scherer traces the Nebraska Press Association's battle to overturn a gag order imposed on the media by state court judges. Prohibited from publishing certain details about the crimes and the Simants trial, the association set its own arduous legal course that would lead ultimately to the U.S. Supreme Court and the landmark ruling issued in Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart. The decision, one of the most closely followed in American constitutional history, remains one of the high court's most significant statements and controlling precedents on the troublesome and recurring conflict between the rights of free press and fair trial.
		The Execution of Willie Francis : Race, Murder, and the Search for Justice in the American South by Gilbert King New York : Basic Civitas Books, c2008 HV8699.U5 K55 2008 Basement On May 3, 1946, a seventeen-year-old boy was scheduled to die by the electric chair inside of a tiny red brick jail in picturesque St. Martinsville, Louisiana. Young Willie Francis had been charged with the murder of a local pharmacist. The electric chair-three hundred pounds of oak and metal- had been dubbed “Gruesome Gertie” and was moved from one jailhouse to another throughout the state of Louisiana. The switch would be thrown at 12:08 P.M., but Willie Francis did not die. Miraculously, having survived this less than cordial encounter with death, Willie was soon informed that the state would try to kill him again in six days. Letters began pouring into St. Martinsville from across the country-Americans of all colors and classes were transfixed by the fate of this young man. A Cajun lawyer just returned from WWII, Bertrand DeBlanc would take on Willie’s case-in the face of overwhelming local resistance. DeBlanc would argue the case all the way from the Bayou to the U.S. Supreme Court. In deciding Willie’s fate the courts and the country would be forced to ask questions about capital punishment that remain unresolved today.
		Good Guys and Bad Guys : Behind the Scenes with the Saints and Scoundrels of American Business (and Everything in Between) by Joe Nocera New York : Portfolio, 2008 HC102.5.A2 N63 2008 Basement For more than twenty-five years, in publications such as Texas Monthly, Esquire, Fortune, and now The New York Times, Joe Nocera has shed new light on the giants of the business world - Warren Buffett, T. Boone Pickens, Bob Nardelli - as well as on the less famous but equally fascinating. He builds stories around their motivations, personalities, and deepest characters. And instead of just pigeonholing them as good guys or bad guys, he explores the gray areas in between." Good Guys and Bad Guys collects Nocera's best articles - on CEOs and entrepreneurs, short sellers and tort lawyers - and updates them with fresh context and insights.
		Security v. Liberty : Conflicts Between Civil Liberties and National Security in American History edited by Daniel Farber New York : Russell Sage Foundation, c2008 KF5060 .S43 2008 Balcony In Security v. Liberty, Daniel Farber leads a group of prominent historians and legal experts in exploring the varied ways in which threats to national security have affected civil liberties throughout American history. Has the government's response to such threats led to a gradual loss of freedoms once taken for granted, or has the nation learned how to restore civil liberties after threats subside and how to put protections in place for the future? Security v. Liberty focuses on periods of national emergency in the twentieth century - from World War I through the Vietnam War - to explore how past episodes might bear upon today's dilemma.
		The Importance of Being Honest : How Lying, Secrecy, and Hypocrisy Collide with Truth in Law by Steven Lubet New York : New York University Press, c2008 KF306 .L834 2008 Balcony The Importance of Being Honest explores the complex aspects of truth seeking (and avoidance) in the legal world. This book is full of tales of questionable practices and poor behavior, chosen because negative examples are much richer, and often more remarkable, in their ultimate lessons. Wyatt Earp's shootout with Billy Clanton, Bill Clinton's disastrous decision to lie under oath, Oscar Wilde's self-destructive perjury in a 1896 libel trial, and the dubious resolution of Justice Scalia's duck hunting trip with Dick Cheney are only a few of the cases Steven Lubet uses to illustrate that law is a vague and boggy realm where both truth and falsehood are seldom absolute.
		The Devil in Dover : An Insider's Story of Dogma v. Darwin in Small-Town America by Lauri Lebo New York : New Press : Distributed by W.W. Norton & Co., 2008 KF228.K57 L43 2008 Balcony The Devil in Dover is the first Studs and Ida Terkel Author Fund book. The Studs and Ida Terkel Author Fund is devoted to supporting the work of promising New Press authors in a range of fields who share Studs's fascination with everyday life in America, and who, like Studs, are committed to exploring aspects of America that are not adequately represented by the mainstream media.
		In Justice : Inside the Scandal that Rocked the Bush Administration by David Iglesias with Davin Seay Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, c2008 KF373.I355 A3 2008 Balcony Packed with previously unrevealed facts, In Justice follows David Iglesias and his colleagues, who would soon be known as the Justice League, as they pieced together the sources and purpose of the conspiracy against them. It reveals how various members of the group viewed their own dismissals, reacted to threats from Justice Department officials designed to ensure their silence, and struggled to find a way to respond to the growing furor over the case. Complete with insights into the power and responsibilities of U.S. Attorneys and an impassioned plea for their historic independence, the rule of law, and insulation from politics, In Justice is a compelling, real-life political thriller that takes you deep inside the Bush administration's darkest moment.
		Toleration and Its Limits edited by Melissa S. Williams and Jeremy Waldron New York : New York University Press, c2008 HM1271 .A54 2008 Basement Toleration has a rich tradition in Western political philosophy. It is, after all, one of the defining topics of political philosophy - historically pivotal in the development of modern liberalism, prominent in the writings of such canonical figures as John Locke and John Stuart Mill, and central to our understanding of the idea of a society in which individuals have the right to live their own lives by their own values, left alone by the state so long as they respect the similar interests of others. Toleration and Its Limits explores the philosophical nuances of the concept of toleration and its scope in contemporary liberal democratic societies. Editors Melissa S. Williams and Jeremy Waldron carefully compiled essays that address the tradition's key historical figures; its role in the development and evolution of Western political theory; its relation to morality, liberalism, and identity; and its limits and dangers.
		The Constitution and Economic Regulation : Objective Theory and Critical Commentary by Michael Conant New Brunswick, NJ : Transaction Publishers, c2008 KF1600 .C54 2008 Balcony This study uses basic economic analysis as a technique to comment critically on the original meaning and the interpretation of those clauses of the Constitution that have particular bearing on the economy.
		Unrestrained : Judicial Excess and the Mind of the American Lawyer by Robert F. Nagel New Brunswick : Transaction Publishers, c2008 KF5130 .N345 2008 Balcony This volume attempts to explain why, despite almost four decades of conservative and moderate appointments, the Supreme Court continues to intervene aggressively in a wide array of social and political issues. The explanation lies primarily in the psychological effects of the way that lawyers think about law and judging. The instincts ingrained by the experiences common to legal education and the successful practice of law also work to encourage the reckless use of power.
		Just Schools : Pursuing Equality in Societies of Difference edited by Martha Minow, Richard A. Shweder, and Hazel Rose Markus New York, N.Y. : Russell Sage Foundation, c2008 LC213.2 .J87 2008 Basement In Just Schools, noted legal scholars, educators, and social scientists examine schools with widely divergent methods of fostering equality in order to explore the possibilities and limits of equal education today. The contributors to Just Schools combine empirical research with ethnographic accounts to paint a picture of the quest for justice in classrooms around the nation. As America's schools strive to accommodate new students from around the world, Just Schools provides a look at the different ways we define and promote justice in schools and society at large.
		Constitutional Conscience : the Moral Dimension of Judicial Decision by H. Jefferson Powell Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2008 KF8700 .P69 2008 Balcony While many recent observers have accused American judges - especially Supreme Court justices - of being too driven by politics and ideology, others have argued that judges are justified in using their positions to advance personal views. Advocating a different approach - one that eschews ideology but still values personal perspective - H. Jefferson Powell makes a case for the centrality of individual conscience in constitutional decision making.
		EC Customs Law by Timothy Lyons Oxford, UK ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2008 2nd ed KJE7312 .L96 2008 Basement EC Customs Law places the law relating to customs in the context of the EC and EU generally and of international trade. This updated second edition covers significant changes in EC customs procedure, legislation, and case-law since the first edition. It includes coverage of the recently implemented 2005 amendments to the Community Customs Code, and refers through out to the modernized code. This book examines the fundamental concepts of the customs union, the Community Customs Code, and its implementing regulations, moving on to consider the administration and interpretation of the Tariff, paying special attention to the decisions of the European Court of Justice.
		Insanity : Murder, Madness, and the Law by Charles Patrick Ewing New York : Oxford University Press, 2008 KF9242 .E95 2008 Balcony The insanity defense is one of the oldest fixtures of the Anglo-American legal tradition. Though it is available to people charged with virtually any crime, and is often employed without controversy, homicide defendants who raise the insanity defense are often viewed by the public and even the legal system as trying to get away with murder. Often it seems that legal result of an insanity defense is unpredictable, and is determined not by the defendants mental state, but by their lawyers and psychologists influence. From the thousands of murder cases in which defendants have claimed insanity, Doctor Ewing has chosen ten of the most influential and widely varied. Some were successful in their insanity plea, while others were rejected. Some of the defendants remain household names years after the fact, like Jack Ruby, while others were never nationally publicized. Regardless of the circumstances, each case considered here was extremely controversial, hotly contested, and relied heavily on lengthy testimony by expert psychologists and psychiatrists. Several of them played a major role in shaping the criminal justice system as we know it today. In this book, Ewing skillfully conveys the psychological and legal drama of each case, while providing important and fresh professional insights. For the legal or psychological professional, as well as the interested reader, Insanity will take you into the minds of some of the most incomprehensible murderers of our age.
		The Anti-dumping Agreement and Developing Countries : An Introduction by Aradhna Aggarwal New Delhi : New York : Oxford University Press, 2007 K4635 .A94 2007 Balcony In the era of globalization, trade policy has become a key development tool and exports expansion a major policy objective. But throughout the global economy, pressures for protectionism are abundant, threatening to reverse developing countries' gains. In this context, anti-dumping has emerged as a critical topic of international debate. This book analyzes the importance of the anti-dumping issue from the perspective of developing countries and discusses their roles and concerns. The author's analysis reveals biases against developing countries and stresses the need for reform of current anti-dumping codes. The book traces the genesis and evolution of the existing anti-dumping agreement and its legal provisions, discusses various economic and non economic justifications of anti-dumping use, empirically analyzes the macroeconomic factors motivating developed and developing countries to use anti-dumping rules and examines wide ranging proposals for reform of the WTO antidumping code. The author analyses various plausible approaches for refining the existing provisions and explores the possibility of reform by including a Public Interest Test. She also suggests updating the Special & Differential Treatment instruments to remedy the existing imbalances.