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Featured Acquisitions - August 2009

See also:  Recent Acquisitions in Selected Subject Areas

Book Jacket Photo Does the Constitution Follow the Flag? : The Evolution of Territoriality in American Law  by Kal Raustiala
Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2009
KF413.J87 R38 2009    Balcony

The Bush Administration has notoriously argued that detainees at Guantanamo do not enjoy constitutional rights because they are held outside American borders. But where do rules about territorial legal limits such as this one come from? Why does geography make a difference for what legal rules apply? Most people intuitively understand that location affects constitutional rights, but the legal and political basis for territorial jurisdiction is poorly understood. In this novel and accessible treatment of territoriality in American law and foreign policy, Kal Raustiala begins by tracing the history of the subject from its origins in post-revolutionary America to the Indian wars and overseas imperialism of the 19th century. He then takes the reader through the Cold War and the globalization era before closing with a powerful explanation of America's attempt to increase its extraterritorial power in the post-9/11 world. As American power has grown, our understanding of extraterritorial legal rights has expanded too, and Raustiala illuminates why America's assumptions about sovereignty and territory have changed. Throughout, he focuses on how the legal limits of territorial sovereignty have diminished to accommodate the expanding American empire, and addresses how such limits ought to look in the wake of Iraq, Afghanistan, and the war on terror. A timely and engaging narrative, Does the Constitution Follow the Flag? will change how we think about American territory, American law, and-ultimately-the changing nature of American power.


Book JacketPhoto The Rule of Recognition and the U.S. Constitution  edited by Matthew D. Adler and Kenneth Einar Himma
New York : Oxford University Press, c2009
KF4552 .R85 2009   Balcony

The Rule of Recognition and the U.S. Constitution is a volume of original essays that discuss the applicability of Hart's rule of recognition model of a legal system to U.S. constitutional law. The contributors are leading scholars in analytical jurisprudence and constitutional theory, including Matthew Adler, Larry Alexander, Mitchell Berman, Michael Dorf, Kent Greenawalt, Richard Fallon, Michael Green, Kenneth Einar Himma, Stephen Perry, Frederick Schauer, Scott Shapiro, Jeremy Waldron, and Wil Waluchow. The volume makes a contribution both in jurisprudence, using the U.S. as a "test case" that highlights the strengths and limitations of the rule of recognition model; and in constitutional theory, by showing how the model can illuminate topics such as the role of the Supreme Court, the constitutional status of precedent, the legitimacy of unwritten sources of constitutional law, the choice of methods for interpreting the text of the Constitution, and popular constitutionalism.


Book Jacket Photo The Affective Life of Law : Legal Modernism and the Literary Imagination by Ravit Reichman
DeKalb : Northern Illinois University Press, c2009
KF9322 .G89 2009  Balcony

A critical study of the effects of mandatory arrest and no-drop prosecution on offenders..


Book Jacket Photo The Lombard Laws  translated with an introduction by Katherine Fischer Drew ; foreword by Edward Peters
Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [1973]
KJ406.E54 D73 1973    Basement

The Lombard Laws -- the laws of Rothair and Grimwald, Liutprand, Ratchis, and Aistulf -- are an extraordinarily important source of information about a people whose contribution to medieval civilization is just beginning to be understood.


Book JacketPhoto Code of Peace : Ethics and Security in the World of the Warlord States by Dorothy V. Jones
Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c1991
JZ1306 .J66 1991   Sohn Library

Is it possible, in our world of differing beliefs and diverse cultures, to find an ethical framework that can guide actual international relations? In Code of Peace, Dorothy V. Jones sets forth her surprising answer to this perplexing question: Not only is a consensus on ethical principles possible, but it has already been achieved. Jones focuses on the progressive development of international law to disclose an underlying code of ethics that enjoys broad support in the world community. Unlike studies that concentrate on what others think that states ought to do, Code of Peace analyzes what states themselves consider proper behavior. Using history as both narrative and argument, Jones shows how the existing ethical code has evolved cumulatively since World War I from a complex interplay between theory and practice. More than an abstract treatise or a merely technical analysis, Jones's study is grounded in the circumstances of war and peace in this century. Treaties and agreements, she argues, are forging a consensus on such principles as human rights, self determination, and cooperation between states. Jones shows how leaders and representatives of nations, drawing on a rich heritage of philosophical thoughts as well as on their own experiences in a violent world of self interested conflict, have shaped their thought to the taming of that world in the cause of peace. That is the striking thing about this code: states whose relations are marked by so frequent a recourse to war that they can fairly be called "warlords" have created and pledged themselves to a code of peace. The implications of Code of Peace for establishing a normative foundation for peace are profound. Historically sound and timely, impeccably researched and elegantly written, the book will be of immediate and lasting value to anyone concerned with the stability of the modern world.


Book JacketPhoto Model Interstate Water Compact  by Jerome C. Muys, George William Sherk, Marilyn C. O'Leary
Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, c2009
KF5575 .M89 2009    Balcony

Over the last two decades, there has been a significant increase in bitter struggles over the supervision of interstate water systems throughout the country. The resulting legal actions have been of increasing concern to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, chaired by New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici. In 2000, as a result of Senator Domenici's efforts, the University of New Mexico Law School received funding for the Utton Transboundary Resources Center to draft an interstate water compact to address these disputes.  Conferences conducted at the Center brought together lawyers and scientists from across the nation to discuss and offer insights into the complex water issues. The result is the Model Interstate Water Compact, which encourages states to assume oversight of trans-boundary resources, especially water, avoiding the inefficiency and expense of legal action. In addition to the authors' proposed model, there is a complete cross-referenced listing of existing interstate water compacts in the appendix.


Book Jacket Photo Science, Technology, and the Nuclear Arms Race by Dietrich Schroeer
New York : Wiley, c1984
U263 .S37 1984   Sohn Library

A comprehensive survey of the nuclear arms race from a technological point of view, which will appeal to the scientist and non-scientist alike. Provides information for the layman on this current topic and is designed for undergraduate courses in political science, history, international studies, as well as physics courses on the subject. Explores the motivation behind the development of various nuclear arms technologies and their deployment and examines the effects these technologies have on military, political and social strategies. Discusses the nature of deterrence and alternatives to it, arms control, and disarmament.


Book Jacket Photo Peace and Security : The Next Generation edited by George A. Lopez and Nancy J. Myers
Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield, c1997
JZ5665 .P43 1997   Sohn Library

Widely known for his creative work in international affairs education, George A. Lopez joins with the former managing editor of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Nancy J. Myers, to select recent articles from the Bulletin best illustrating a wide range of issues on peace and security.