Featured Acquisitions - Alexander Campbell King Law Library

Featured Acquisitions - September 2007

See also: Recent Acquisitions in Selected Subject Areas


		A Measure of Endurance: The Unlikely Triumph of Steven Sharp by William Mishler New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2003 HV1555.O7 M57 2003 Basement The remarkable, heartwarming story of a courageous teenage boy, who, after being gravely injured while using a farm machine, takes on its powerful manufacturer and wins. Steven Sharp was a hardworking, energetic sixteen-year-old growing up happily in a tiny farming community in eastern Oregon, in a remote high desert valley. His family was his harbor. Nothing pleased him more than the outdoor life, fending for himself in the nearby mountains. In the last hour of the last day of a summer job on a local ranch, his life was changed forever when a huge baler he was inspecting suddenly and mysteriously turned itself on and severed both his arms. Slipping in and out of consciousness, stumbling through a field, he followed a fence to a nearby house. Soon he was on an airplane, hoping time was still on his side. His recovery was amazing. Somehow he maintained his optimism and his zest for living. In the hospital, his desire to get on with his life inspired both his doctors and his fellow patients. He returned to school, joking to reassure his classmates on what could have been an awkward first day. His relaxed, down-to-earth manner put his family and neighbors at ease. Finally he was back in his beloved mountains, hunting and fishing, with the hospital’s prosthetics and his own rigged-up rifle compensating for his missing arms. Although he was convinced that the machine that had injured him had malfunctioned, he had no intention of seeking redress—farm life had its risks and rewards. He wasn’t going to dwell on the past or let his setback change his way of life. But by an amazing quirk of fate—a friend’s memory of a notice in a three-year-old magazine—he came to learn that others had been similarly injured while using the same kind of machine. Now, with the help of a brilliant and idealistic trial lawyer named Bill Manning, whose commitment to Steven seemed something of a completion to his own spiritual journey, Steven took on the multinational, multibillion-dollar company, withstood their counterattack, and emerged triumphant. A Measure of Endurance is a gripping, poignant, and truly unforgettable story.
		The Microsoft Case: Antitrust, High Technology, and Consumer Welfare by William H. Page and John E. Lopatka Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c2007 KF228.U5 P34 2007 Balcony In 1998, the United States Department of Justice and state antitrust agencies charged that Microsoft was monopolizing the market for personal computer operating systems by suppressing a competitive threat from Netscape’s web browser and Sun Microsystems’ Java technologies. After a celebrated trial, the government won a partial victory, and federal courts issued a series of important decisions that inspired scores of follow-on suits by consumers, rivals, and foreign enforcement agencies. William H. Page and John E. Lopatka’s The Microsoft Case examines the implications of this momentous litigation from the perspective of consumer welfare. Tracing the development of the case from its conceptual origins through the trial and the key decisions on both liability and remedies, this book evaluates the defining antitrust litigation of our era. The authors argue that, at critical points, the legal system failed consumers by overrating government’s ability to influence outcomes in a dynamic market. This ambitious book is essential reading for business, law, and economics scholars as well as anyone else interested in the ways that technology, economics, and antitrust law have interacted in the digital age.
		The Reception of English Law Abroad by B.H. McPherson Brisbane, Queensland, Australia : Supreme Court of Queensland Library, 2007 KD661 .M54 2007 Basement The reception of English law abroad has antecedents that can be traced back as far as the English invasion of Ireland in the late 12th century. But it is to the settlement of Virginia 400 years ago that the legal systems of the former colonial empire owe their beginnings. As with the English language, transposing the law overseas produced different accents and usages involving adjustments and change to many of its rules. None of the legal systems of the 100 or more places that now use English law or derivative forms of it is today an exact replica of what it was at the time when it parted from its matrix. This book has been many years in the making, occupying all of the time that could be spared from the demands of judicial office in Queensland. The experience of sitting in courts in Solomon Islands and Fiji has added an extra dimension to the author’s understanding of the reception process abroad.
		Constitutional Interpretation: The Basic Questions by Sotirios A. Barber and James E. Fleming New York : Oxford University Press, c2007 KF4550 .B257 2007 Balcony Ronald Dworkin famously argued that fidelity in interpreting the Constitution as written calls for a fusion of constitutional law and moral philosophy. Barber and Fleming take up that call, arguing for a philosophic approach to constitutional interpretation. In doing so, they systematically critique the competing approaches - textualism, consensualism, originalism, structuralism, doctrinalism, minimalism, and pragmatism - that aim and claim to avoid a philosophic approach. Constitutional Interpretation: The Basic Questions illustrates that these approaches cannot avoid philosophic reflection and choice in interpreting the Constitution. Barber and Fleming contend that fidelity in constitutional interpretation requires a fusion of philosophic and other approaches, properly understood. Within such a fusion, interpreters would begin to think of text, consensus, intentions, structures, and doctrines not as alternatives to, but as sites of philosophic reflection about the best understanding of our constitutional commitments. Constitutional Interpretation: The Basic Questions , examines the fundamental inquiries that arise in interpreting constitutional law. In doing so, the authors survey the controversial and intriguing questions that have stirred constitutional debate in the United States for over two centuries, such as: how and for what ends should governmental institutions and powers be arranged; what does the Constitution mean under general circumstances and how should it be interpreted during concrete controversies; and finally how do we decide what our constitution means and who ultimately decides its meaning.
		From Tyndale to Madison: How the Death of an English Martyr Led to the American Bill of Rights by Michael Farris Nashville, Tenn. : B & H Pub. Group, c2007 BV741 .F37 2007 Balcony From Tyndale to Madison is a sweeping literary work passionately tracing the epic history of religious liberty across three centuries, from the turbulent waning days of medieval Europe to colonial America and the birth pangs of a new nation. With literally a cast of thousands, the tapestry of world history is on display here. From the remarkable translation work of William Tyndale to the court intrigues of Henry VIII and Thomas More, the battle for the English Bible culminates in the venerable King James Version. Also detailed is the spread of the Reformation through the eyes of Martin Luther, John Knox, and John Calvin—in their own, often surprising words. Readers witness the anguish of religious dissenters under the oppressive reign of Bloody Mary and the first sparks of liberty with the rise of Oliver Cromwell and the English Commonwealth. A little more than one hundred years later, across the sea, James Madison, Patrick Henry, and Thomas Jefferson fight to establish a bill of rights that will guarantee every American citizen the “free exercise” of their religion. Without sugarcoating either side of the story, author Michael Farris, an exemplary twenty-first-century statesman and constitutional lawyer who regularly defends religious freedom on Capitol Hill, shares eye-opening historical details regarding the sacrifices people made then to secure the inalienable rights we enjoy today.
		The Aesthetics of International Law by Ed Morgan Toronto : University of Toronto Press, c2007 K487.A3 M67 2007 Sohn Library International law is a fundamentally modern phenomenon. Tracing its roots to the skeletal nineteenth-century pronouncements of the ‘law of nations,’ the discipline took shape in the elaborate treaty structures of the post-First World War era and in the institutions and tribunals of the post-Second World War period. International law as scholars know and study it today is a product of modernism. In The Aesthetics of International Law, Ed Morgan engages in a literary parsing of international legal texts. In order to demonstrate how modernist aesthetics are imbued in these types of legal narratives, Morgan makes a direct comparison between international legal documents and modern (as well as some immediately pre- and post-modern) literary texts. He demonstrates how the same intellectual currents that flow through the works of authors ranging from Edgar Allen Poe to James Joyce to Vladimir Nabokov, are also present in legal doctrines ranging from the law of war to international commercial disputes to human rights. By providing a comparative, interdisciplinary account of the modern phenomenon, this work seeks to highlight the ways in which judges, lawyers, and state representatives artfully exploit the narratives of international law. It demonstrates that just as modernist literature developed complex narrative techniques as a way of dealing with the human condition, modern international law has developed parallel argumentative techniques as a way of dealing with international political conditions.
		Insult to Injury; Insurance, Fraud and the Big Business of Bad Faith by Ray Bourhis San Francisco : Berrett-Koehler, c2005 KF1301.5.I58 B68 2005 Balcony Joan Hangarter bought a disability policy in 1990 to protect her should she ever become seriously ill. She dutifully paid her annual premiums for nearly a decade. But when she became disabled, she and her children found themselves homeless and bankrupt when her insurer--UnumProvident--stopped paying her benefits. With the help of attorneys Ray Bourhis and Alice Wolfson, Hangarter won a landmark $7.7 million jury verdict against Unum. Through the compelling stories of ordinary people who have been driven to bankruptcy--or worse--when tragedy struck, Bourhis shows how the insurance industry runs roughshod over the very people it is paid to protect. He shows how the industry has become so insulated from accountability that neither lawsuits, punitive damage awards, federal court injunctions, newspaper headlines, nor television exposure can derail their determined efforts to turn a profit at any cost. Bourhis, a national champion of policyholder rights, walks readers through both Joan Hangarter's heart-wrenching case and the stories of Susan McGregor, Stuart Gluck, John Tedesco, Laurie Hindiyeh, Eugene Molfino, Julie Guyton, Michael Baldwin, Margaret Santana, and numerous other claimants--real people with heart disease, AIDS, spinal injuries, brain damage, Parkinson's disease, and other disabilities whose benefits were cut off just when they needed them most. Bourhis shows how the world's largest disability carrier, UnumProvident, has relied on a host of shady practices--from surveillance to one-sided medical evaluations to policy re-interpretations-to target and terminate benefit payments. Through these cautionary tales, he shines a spotlight on widespread bad faith double-dealing by insurance providers and details the key regulatory failures that enable these practices to continue unchecked.
		When Nature Strikes: Weather Disasters and the Law by Marsha L. Baum Westport, Conn. : Praeger Publishers, 2007 KF3750 .B38 2007 Balcony Both law and weather affect us every day of our modern lives, yet most people do not know how the weather has affected developments in the law, nor are they aware of how the law has attempted to develop ways to affect the weather. When Nature Strikes is the first book to examine the various areas in which law and weather meet and affect each other. This one-of-a-kind work describes the law related to weather in the United States in the context of specific cases, legislation, and administrative legal action. For example, weather can be the means to commit a crime or the factor that turns an event from a terrible accident into a criminal act. Weather can be a defense against liability in both civil and criminal cases. People seek relief in court from the harm caused by weather events, whether a slip on the ice or the horrible devastation wrought by a deadly hurricane. Courts and the criminal justice system can be affected by weather events that prevent physical access to the courthouse or that destroy evidence. Through laws passed by Congress, U.S. weather services have evolved from simply weather recording into weather forecasting and warning systems. Federal patent law offers monopolies over inventions to encourage inventors to develop new devices that increase human safety in extreme weather or to improve methods such as cloud seeding or wind energy.
		Intellectual Property: The Many Faces of the Public Domain edited by Charlotte Waelde and Hector MacQueen Cheltenham, UK ; Northampton, MA, USA : Edward Elgar, c2007 K1401 .I577 2007 Balcony As technological progress marches on, so anxiety over the shape of the public domain is likely to continue if not increase. This collection helps to define the boundaries within which the debate over the shape of law and policy should take place. From historical analysis to discussion of contemporary developments, the importance of the public domain in its cultural and scientific contexts is explored by lawyers, scientists, economists, librarians, journalists and entrepreneurs. The contributions will both deepen and enliven the reader's understanding of the public domain in its many guises, and will also serve to highlight the public domain's key role in innovation. This book will appeal not only to students and researchers coming from a variety of fields, but also to policymakers in the IP field and those more generally interested in the public domain, as well as those more directly involved in the current movements towards open access, open science and open source.
		Chechnya: From Nationalism to Jihad by James Hughes Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2007 DK511.C2 H84 2007 Sohn Library Hostilities between Russia and Chechnya stands as an exception to the mostly peaceful breakup of the Soviet Union. Seven years into the second Russian-Chechen war, the two protagonists are now embroiled in what seems to be an unbridgeable conflict, with prospects for either a military or diplomatic solution seeming increasingly remote. Western commentators have explained this antagonism as being rooted in "ancient hatreds," yet successive Russian leaders have negatively framed it as a counter-terrorism operation against bandits, terrorists, and Islamic radicals, a characterization that was coopted by the U.S.-led global War on Terror. The war is now widely understood as part of a global trend of resistance in Islamic societies mutating from a secular, nationalist struggle into a form that is its antithesis, jihad. Through a critical exploration of the most widely held assumptions about the nature of the conflict, Chechnya: From Nationalism to Jihad provides a comprehensive analysis of the causes and dynamics of the conflict from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 to the present. Rejecting historicist explanations, the book traces the politics of nationalism and the demands for national self-determination in the region in the late 1980s. James Hughes convincingly shows how the violence that followed was instrumentalized by political leadership in Russia and Chechnya to consolidate authority and build popular support for their opposing nationalist visions. Exploring recent currents in theories of nationalism, democratization, state building, and conflict, Hughes demonstrates their limitations when applied to developments in Chechnya. The book focuses on the conflict as a process, demonstrating that how the conflict has been fought is itself a dynamic factor that is consistently structuring and restructuring the issues at stake and the salience of the key protagonists. The strife in Chechnya involves many of the most contentious issues in contemporary international politics. How do we differentiate between the legitimate use of violent resistance to occupation and terrorism against legitimate rule? Why do deeply divided societies sometimes descend into political violence? Under what conditions might common mechanisms of conflict management succeed? By providing a persuasive and challenging study, Hughes sets out indispensable lessons for other conflicts involving the volatile combination of insurgency and counter-insurgency, most notably the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
		Defending the Society of States: Why America Opposes the International Criminal Court and its Vision of World Society by Tarleton Gillespier Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007 Z6311 .R35 2007 Basement This book is among the first to address the issues raised by the International Criminal Court (ICC) from an International Relations perspective. By clearly outlining a theoretical framework to interpret these issues, Ralph makes a significant contribution to the English School's study of international society. More specifically, he offers a concise definition of 'world society' and thus helps to resolve a longstanding problem in international theory. This groundbreaking conceptual work is supported by an in-depth empirical analysis of American opposition to the ICC. Ralph goes beyond the familiar arguments related to national interests and argues that the Court has exposed the extent to which American notions of accountability are tied to the nation-state. Where other democracies are willing to renegotiate their social contract because they see themselves as part of world society, the US protects its particular contract with 'the people' because it offers a means of distinguishing America and its democracy from the rest of the world. This 'sovereigntist', or more accurately 'Americanist', influence is further illustrated in chapters on the sources of law, universal jurisdiction, transatlantic relations and US policy on international humanitarian law in the war on terror. The book concludes by evoking E.H. Carr's criticism of those great powers who claim that a harmony exists between their particular interests and those of wider society. It also recalls his argument that great powers sometimes need to compromise and in this context, Ralph argues that support for the ICC is a more effective means of fulfilling America's purpose and a less costly sacrifice than that demanded by the 'Americanist' policy of nation-building.
		Trial Courts as Organizations by Brian J. Ostrom, Charles W. Ostrom, Jr., Roger A. Hanson and Matthew Kleiman Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2007 KF8719 .T75 2007 Balcony Court administrators and judges have long acknowledged that culture plays an important role in the function of trial courts. Trial Courts as Organizations provides a comprehensive framework for understanding this organizational culture, along with a set of steps and tools to assess and measure the current and preferred culture. The authors examine how courts operate, what characteristics they may display, and how they function as a unit to preserve judicial independence, strengthen organizational leadership, and influence court performance. They identify four different types of institutional cultures using a systematic analysis of alternative values on how work is done. Each culture is shown to have its own strengths and weaknesses in achieving values, such as timely case resolution, access to court services, and procedural justice. Accordingly, the authors find judges and administrators prefer a definite pattern of different cultures, called a "mosaic," to guide how their courts operate in the future.