Featured Acquisitions -April 2004

Featured Acquisitions - April 2004


		Never Too Late: A Prosecutor's Story of Justice in the Medgar Evers Case by Bobby Delaughter New York : Scribner, c2001 KF224.B34 D45 2001 Balcony On June 12, 1963, Mississippi's fast-rising NAACP leader Medgar Evers was gunned down by a white supremacist named Byron De La Beckwith. Beckwith escaped conviction twice at the hands of all-white Southern juries, and his crime went unpunished for more than three decades. Now, from Bobby DeLaughter, one of the most celebrated prosecutors in modern American law, comes the blistering account of his remarkable crusade in 1994 finally to bring the assassin of Medgar Evers to justice. This is the fascinating, real-life story of the assistant district attorney -- played by Alec Baldwin in Rob Reiner's Ghosts of Mississippi -- who brought closure to one of the darkest chapters of the civil rights movement. When the district attorney's office in Jackson, Mississippi, decided to reopen the case, the obstacles in its way were overwhelming: missing court records; transcripts that were more than thirty years old; original evidence that had been lost; new testimony that had to be taken regarding long-ago events; and the perception throughout the state that a reprosecution was a futile endeavor. But step by painstaking step, DeLaughter and his team overcame the obstacles and built their case. With taut prose that reads like a great detective thriller, Never Too Late is a page-turner of the very highest order. It charts the course of a country lawyer who, concerned about the collective soul of his community and the nature of American justice in general, dared to revisit a thirty-one-year-old case -- one so incendiary that everyone warned him not to touch it -- and win a long-overdue conviction. DeLaughter's success in this trial stands today as a landmark in the annals of criminal prosecution, and this bracing first-person account brings the saga to life as never before. For more info, browse front cover, front flap, table of contents, intro pages, excerpt, index, back flap and back cover from Amazon.com
		Reclaiming the American Revolution: The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions and Their Legacy by William J. Watkins, Jr. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2004 KF4621 .W38 2004 Balcony Reclaiming the American Revolution examines the struggles for political ascendancy between Federalists and the Republicans in the early days of the American Republic. Watkins views the struggle through the lens of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, charters written by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison respectively, that were responses to the Alien and Sedition Acts passed by Federalists that, among other things, made criticism of the federal government a crime. Viewing those acts as a threat to states' rights, as well as indicative of a national government that sought supreme power, the Resolutions restated the principles of the American Revolution and sought to return the nation to the tenets of the Constitution, in which rights for all were protected by checking the power of the national government. For more info, browse front cover, front flap, table of contents, excerpt, index, back flap and back cover from Amazon.com
		Seeking Civility: Common Courtesy and the Common Law by George W. Jarecke Boston : Northeastern University Press, c2003 K184 .J365 2003 Balcony Road rage threatens mental health and physical safety. People use cell phones in public places with blithe indifference for the tranquillity of others. Smokers, while fewer in numbers, still have a defiant look about them when they light up outside office buildings and are not especially careful where they blow their smoke. In these and similar incidents involving a lack of common courtesy or respect, individuals often turn to the legal system to resolve personal disputes. But is the law the best vehicle for enforcing good manners or behavior? George W. Jarecke and Nancy K. Plant explore this question by describing in rich detail a broad range of cases—some shocking, others amusing—that illustrate how intentional acts of incivility have been punished by the nation's laws and litigated in the courts. Writing in accessible, engaging prose for the general reader, the authors focus on different legal actions that fall under tort law: battery and assault, trespass and nuisance, emotional distress, verbal abuse, badgering, stalking, defamation. They consider why the law is ineffective in settling common disputes of incivility, suggesting that it actually encourages both unnecessary litigation and another act of incivility—the lawsuit itself. Jarecke and Plant discuss the limitations of the law in regulating certain discourteous acts, such as obscene and blasphemous speech, and question if claims centering on laws that govern incivility are actually increasing or merely being expressed in different ways. For example, while cyberstalking has become enough of a problem to require criminal legislation, a new etiquette for e-mail is just developing. The authors demonstrate that the legal system is neither an efficient nor an effective mode of enforcing common courtesy, and argue convincingly that individuals may be better advised to seek mediation by objective third parties to resolve common disputes. In today's litigious society, this lively and informative work offers a refreshing perspective on the interplay between courtesy and the law.
		Civil Wars: A Battle for Gay Marriage by David Moats Orlando : Harcourt, c2004 HQ1034.U5 M62 2004 Basement In 2000 Vermont became the first state to grant gay and lesbian couples the right to join in civil unions-a groundbreaking decision that has inspired similar legislation in six states thus far. But it was not an easy victory; the ruling sparked the fiercest political conflict in the state's memory. David Moats was in the thick of it, writing a series of balanced, humane editorials that earned a Pulitzer Prize. Now he tells the intimate stories behind the battle and introduces us to all the key actors in the struggle, including the couples who first filed suit; the lawyers who spent years championing the case; and the only openly gay legislator in Vermont, who ensured victory with an impassioned, deeply personal speech on the House floor at a crucial moment. Civil Wars is a remarkable drama of democracy at work on a human scale. For more info, read an excerpt from Civil Wars
		Innocent: Inside Wrongful Conviction Cases by Scott Christianson New York : New York University Press, c2004 KF9756 .C49 2004 Balcony In 2003 Gov. George Ryan cleared Illinois' death row, pardoning four death penalty inmates who said their confessions had been tortured out of them. He then commuted the death sentences of the remaining 156 death-row inmates to life in prison—a move unprecedented since capital punishment was reinstated. But Ryan's move was only the most dramatic at a time when it seems that everyday we read of a new prisoner released because of new evidence, police misconduct, or a host of other miscarriages of justice. While the American legal system is based on the tenet that accused persons are considered innocent until proven guilty, a close look at many cases reveal that this is often far from the truth.The 42 cases collected and graphically documented in Innocent tell the story of just such wrongful conviction cases. Based upon interviews with more than 200 people and reviews of hundreds of internal case files, court records, smoking-gun memoranda and other documents, Scott Christianson gets inside the legal cases and displays them through documents and images of the people and evidence involved. He reveals the mistakes, abuses and underlying factors that led to miscarriages of justice, including the presumption of guilt, mistaken identification, eyewitness perjury, ineffective assistance of counsel, police misconduct, prosecutorial misconduct, and forensics, while also describing how determined prisoners, post-conviction attorneys, advocates and journalists struggled against tremendous odds to win their exonerations.Some of the defendants in Innocent are still in prison, trying to prove their innocence to the courts. Others have had their convictions reversed and the charges against them dismissed, and still others have been awarded civil damages after the state conceded their innocence. The result is a brief and powerful work that recounts the human costs of a criminal justice system gone awry, and reminds us that wrongful convictions can—and do—happen.
		Barman: Ping-Pong, Pathos & Passing the Bar by Alex Wellen New York : Harmony Books, c2003 KF297 .W45 2003 Balcony Alex Wellen is an excited, ambitious, and overwhelmed twenty-something law student trying to integrate into one of the most powerful and promise-filled cities in the world—New York. As he moves from graduating student to licensed lawyer—the second most important nine months he ever spent “gestating”—Alex fantasizes about the glitzy, high-powered lifestyle of a Manhattan attorney. He imagines hobnobbing with the elite, eating at the best restaurants, and being a guest at the most coveted social events—but in this city of overachievers, he is reminded every step of the way that he did not go to Harvard. Can he overcome the profession’s snobbery by wearing overpriced ties from Barneys, seat-filling at the VH1 fashion awards, cavorting with B-list celebrities, and throwing TriBeCa loft parties? Is it enough for him to look and play the part? Along the way, we meet his fellow sufferers in the dread-inducing bar exam cram courses, his girlfriends and roommate, the law firm recruiters interested in hiring him (and those who aren’t), and the new associates who work with him at a high-profile law firm, some of whom, the odds are, won’t pass the bar. Savvy and entertaining, Wellen’s story is The Paper Chase meets Sex and the City—a career memoir for anyone who has discovered his or her life’s goal, yet must overcome tremendous obstacles to attain it. Barman is an honest, revealing, and hilarious portrait of a lawyer as a young man. For more info, read an excerpt from Barman
		Legisprudence: A New Theoretical Approach to Legislation edited by Luc Wintgens Oxford ; Portland, Or. : Hart, 2002 K284 .B45 2002 Balcony The unifying idea behind the essays in this volume is that, although legislation and regulation are the result of a political process, legislation and regulation can be the object of theoretical study. The focus is on problems that are common to most European legal systems, and the approach involves applying to legislative problems the tools of legal theory (hence ‘legisprudence’). Traditional legal theory deals predominantly with the question of the application of law by the judge. Legisprudence enlarges the field of study so as to include the creation of law by the legislator. Following this new approach a variety of new questions and problems are raised, including the validity of norms, their meaning, and the structure of the legal system, problems that are traditionally dealt with from the perspective of the judge or are taken for granted by classical legal theory. However, by shifting the attention to the legislator, the same questions arise, though traditional legal science covers many of these questions with the cloak of sovereignty. The original essays published in this volume expose and develop a range of new insights into the relationship between legislative problems and legal theory in a way which will engage and interest many legal scholars around the world.
		You Can't Say That!: The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws by David E. Bernstein Washington, D.C. : Cato Institute, c2003 KF4749 .B47 2003 Balcony Should you be able to tell a racy joke at work? Should an overweight girl demand to be a ballerina? Should college students have the right to free speech on campus? In a book from the Cato Institute, You Can't Say That! The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws, David E. Bernstein argues that a host of antidiscrimination laws are beginning to threaten our basic civil liberties. In a misguided attempt to rid our society of every vestige of "discrimination," activists and judges are using antidiscrimination laws to erode civil liberties such as free speech, the free exercise of religion and freedom of association. Civil rights laws are being applied in ways that threaten speech on campus and in the workplace, the right of local community leaders to speak out against government policies, the rights of private associations such as the Boy Scouts to determine their membership policies, and even the rights of individuals to choose their roommates. In example after example, from freedom of speech to artistic expression to religion, You Can't Say That! reveals the profound threat to civil liberties posed by antidiscrimination laws.
		Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America by Mae M. Ngai Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2004 KF4800 .N485 2004 Balcony This book traces the origins of the "illegal alien" in American law and society, explaining why and how illegal migration became the central problem in U.S. immigration policy--a process that profoundly shaped ideas and practices about citizenship, race, and state authority in the twentieth century.Mae Ngai offers a close reading of the legal regime of restriction that commenced in the 1920s--its statutory architecture, judicial genealogies, administrative enforcement, differential treatment of European and non-European migrants, and long-term effects. In well-drawn historical portraits, Ngai peoples her study with the Filipinos, Mexicans, Japanese, and Chinese who comprised, variously, illegal aliens, alien citizens, colonial subjects, and imported contract workers. She shows that immigration restriction, particularly national-origin and numerical quotas, re-mapped the nation both by creating new categories of racial difference and by emphasizing as never before the nation's contiguous land borders and their patrol. This yielded the "illegal alien," a new legal and political subject whose inclusion in the nation was a social reality but a legal impossibility--a subject without rights and excluded from citizenship. Questions of fundamental legal status created new challenges for liberal democratic society and have directly informed the politics of multiculturalism and national belonging in our time.Ngai's analysis is based on extensive archival research, including previously unstudied records of the U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Naturalization Service. Contributing to American history, legal history, and ethnic studies, Impossible Subjects is a major reconsideration of U.S. immigration in the twentieth century. For more info, read the introduction to Impossible Subjects
		The Courage of Strangers: Coming of Age with the Human Rights Movement by Jeri Laber New York : Public Affairs, c2002 HQ1413.L33 A3 2002 Basement After Jeri Laber earned a Master's degree in Russian studies at Columbia University, she became a part-time writer and editor and a full-time wife and mother. Then one day in 1973 she read an article about torture that altered her life and subsequently the lives of countless others around the world. The Courage of Strangers tells how Laber became a founder and the executive director of Helsinki Watch, which grew to be Human Rights Watch, one of the world's most influential organizations. She describes her secret trips to unwelcoming countries, where she met with some of the great political activists of the time. She also recalls what it was like to come of age professionally in an era when women were supposed to follow rather than lead; how she struggled to balance work and family; and how her fight for human rights informed her own intellectual, spiritual and emotional development. This story of the birth of the human rights movement is also a sweeping history of dissent and triumph in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Elegantly written, full of passion, humor and political wisdom, it is exciting history as well as a moving, entertaining, inspiring story of a woman's life. For more info, read an excerpt from The Courage of Strangers
		Unconscious Crime: Mental Absence and Criminal Responsibility in Victorian London by Joel Peter Eigen Baltimore, Md. : Johns Hopkins University Press, c2003 KD7897 .E359 2003 Basement A sleepwalking, homicidal nursemaid; a "morally vacant" juvenile poisoner; a man driven to arson by a "lesion of the will"; an articulate and poised man on trial for assault who, while conducting his own defense, undergoes a profound personality change and becomes a wild and delusional "alter." These people are not characters from a mystery novelist's vivid imagination, but rather defendants who were tried at the Old Bailey, London's central criminal court, in the mid-nineteenth century. In Unconscious Crime, Joel Peter Eigen explores these and other cases in which defendants did not conform to any of the Victorian legal system's existing definitions of insanity yet displayed convincing evidence of mental aberration. Instead, they were—or claimed to be—"missing," "absent," or "unconscious": lucid, though unaware of their actions. Based on extensive research in the Old Bailey Sessions Papers (verbatim courtroom narratives taken down in shorthand during the trial and sold on the street the following day), Eigen's book reveals a growing estrangement between law and medicine over the legal concept of the Person as a rational and purposeful actor with a clear understanding of consequences. The McNaughtan Rules of l843 had formalized the Victorian insanity plea, guiding the courts in cases of alleged delusion and derangement. But as Eigen makes clear in the cases he discovered, even though defense attorneys attempted to broaden the definition of insanity to include mental absence, the courts and physicians who testified as experts were wary of these novel challenges to the idea of human agency and responsibility. Combining the colorful intrigue of courtroom drama and the keen insights of social history, Unconscious Crime depicts Victorian England's legal and medical cultures confronting a new understanding of human behavior, and provocatively suggests these trials represent the earliest incarnation of double consciousness and multiple personality disorder. For more info, browse front cover, front flap, table of contents, intro pages, excerpt, index, back flap and back cover from Amazon.com
		Religious Expression and the American Constitution by Franklyn S. Haiman East Lansing : Michigan State University Press, c2003 KF4783 .H345 20033 Balcony First Amendment rights have been among the most fiercely debated topics in the aftermath of 9/11. In the current environment and fervor for “homeland security,” personal freedoms in exchange for security are coming under more scrutiny. Among these guaranteed freedoms are the protection of religious expression given by the U.S. Constitution and the constitutional prohibitions against behaviors that violate the separation of church and state. The mandate that the government “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” is a general principle that has guided American courts in interpreting the original intent of the First Amendment. In Religious Expression and the American Constitution, Haiman focuses on the current state of American law with respect to a broad range of controversial issues affecting religious expression, both verbal and nonverbal, along with a review of the recent history of each issue to provide a full understanding.
		The Idea of Public Law by Martin Loughlin Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2003 K3150 .L68 2003 Balcony This volume argues that public law must be treated as a special, indeed autonomous, subject and that the root cause of many of the difficulties and controversies that have arisen within both contemporary jurisprudence and also in the practice of public law have arisen because this argument has been neglected, and even suppressed. In this volume, Craven explores the nature and method of public law, and offers a novel account of the idea of public law.
		Investing in China: Legal, Financial and Regulatory Risk by William B. Gamble Westport, Conn. : Quorum Books, 2002 KNQ78.B87 G36 2002 Annex 1 There is a dearth of accurate information and analysis on China's economic/business infrastructure available to the investment community. Using his own experience and cases from the Asian press, Gamble shows, in no uncertain terms, the challenges of doing business in China, from real estate to joint ventures and beyond. It is possible to read the pertinent law in China - translations of statutes are available - yet determining exactly how the legal infrastructure works "on the ground" is difficult. Without proper guidance, discerning the infrastructure's impac on risk management, economic forecasting, or prospective business and financial operations is next to impossible. Gamble provides that information through a combination of legal research, economic analysis and investigative journalism drawn from some 10 years of experience in the China market. This book is vital reading for business executives, investors, and anyone concerned with China's business and economic environment.
		The Cultural Defense by Alison Dundes Renteln New York : Oxford University Press, 2004 K5455 .R46 2004 Balcony In a trial in California, Navajo defendants argue that using the hallucinogen peyote to achieve spiritual exaltation is protected by the Constitution's free exercise of religion clause, trumping the states' right to regulate them. An Ibo man from Nigeria sues Pan American World Airways for transporting his mother's corpse in a cloth sack. Her arrival for the funeral facedown in a burlap bag signifies death by suicide according to the customs of her Ibo kin, and brings great shame to the son. In Los Angeles, two Cambodian men are prosecuted for attempting to eat a four month-old puppy. The immigrants' lawyers argue that the men were following their own "national customs" and do not realize their conduct is offensive to "American sensibilities." What is the just decision in each case? When cultural practices come into conflict with the law is it legitimate to take culture into account? Is there room in modern legal systems for a cultural defense? In this remarkable book, Alison Dundes Renteln amasses hundreds of cases from the U.S. and around the world in which cultural issues take center stage-from the mundane to the bizarre, from drugs to death. Though cultural practices vary dramatically, Renteln demonstrates that there are discernible patterns to the cultural arguments used in the courtroom. The regularities she uncovers offer judges a starting point for creating a body of law that takes culture into account. Renteln contends that a systematic treatment of culture in law is not only possible, but ultimately more equitable. A just pluralistic society requires a legal system that can assess diverse motivations and can recognize the key role that culture plays in influencing human behavior. The inclusion of evidence of cultural background is necessary for the fair hearing of a case. An invaluable resource for practitioners, students, and the merely curious, this comprehensive treatment of cultural conflicts in diverse societies will spark lively debate.
		Tragic Indifference: One Man's Battle with the Auto Industry over the Dangers of SUVs by Adam L. Penenberg New York : HarperBusiness, c2003 KF1297.A8 P46 2003 Balcony Tragic Indifference is the gut-wrenching account of the biggest product liability case in history: the Ford-Firestone fiasco, where delaminating Firestone tires caused Ford Explorers to lose control and crash at highway speeds. The result was a massive recall, consumer panic, and congressional hearings. It all culminated in a lawsuit that would become a watershed for all future auto safety lawsuits. In February 2000, reports began to surface of an alarming number of rollover cases involving Ford Explorers traveling on Firestone's Wilderness AT tire. As the stories drove a national frenzy of news coverage, no one seemed to know what was causing the devastation. Until one lawyer, who had been campaigning for years to get Ford to acknowledge the dangerous flaws in the design of the Explorer -- an engineering flaw greatly exacerbated by the use of Firestone's tires -- stepped forward to demand that Ford executives take responsibility for the lethal design of their trucks. More than a courtroom drama, Tragic Indifference reveals the web of individual stories beneath the national headlines. Weaving together harrowing depictions of the accidents and their consequences with the stories of the men and women who labor to police the auto industry and its reckless cost-cutting, Tragic Indifference will transform the way you view the government, the courts, and the media. Above all, this book shows the price the public pays in wrecked and mangled lives when companies focus more on shaving costs than making quality products. At the center of the story is Tab Turner, a charismatic trial attorney from Arkansas, who has made a career out of forcing Ford and other automakers to own up to their unsafe practices and to admit that they knowingly trade human lives for profits. Given the almost complete lack of government regulation over the auto industry, Turner has become, in essence, the court of last resort for victims of callous auto companies. Tragic Indifference also recounts the struggles of Turner's client Donna Bailey, a single mother and outdoor enthusiast who led troubled teens on backpacking trips, as she fought back from the brink of death to confront those ultimately responsible for her accident. Her case became a benchmark for all others that followed. For more info, read an excerpt from Tragic Indifference
		Guardians of the Moral Order: The Legal Philosophy of the Supreme Court, 1860-1910 by Mark Warren Bailey Dekalb : Northern Illinois University Press, c2004 KF8742 .B29 2004 Balcony Progress was the byword of America's Gilded Age, a time of technological innovation, industrial growth, and overseas expansion. It was an era of emancipation for former slaves, settlement houses for immigrants, and colleges for women. Anti-saloon leagues called for the prohibition of alcohol, while citizens demanded labor regulations and food and drug laws. Confronted by all these forces of change, the Supreme Court appeared the bastion of conservatism in case after case as it defended the old moral and social order. Progressive reformers of the time as well as historians of the twentieth century have depicted the era's nine justices as aging reactionaries or, worse, accused them of championing a laissez-faire, imperialistic reading of the U.S. Constitution. Now, in Guardians of the Moral Order, Mark Bailey rises to their defense. The conservatism of the Supreme Court from 1860 through 1910, he argues, reflected not a conversion to the gospel of wealth but a steadfast belief in the vision of man and society grounded in eighteenth-century Enlightenment ideas and nineteenth-century moral science. As college students, the justices learned these values through the philosophy courses central to the antebellum curriculum. As judges, their understanding of the law as a branch of moral science influenced their rulings on a wide array of social, political, and economic issues. Taking the approach of an intellectual historian, Bailey examines the college education and legal training that these justices received. He then looks at their speeches and writings, both on and off the bench, to discover their views on such topics as the definition of private property, racial equality, and the rights of peoples in America's newly acquired territories. An unflagging faith in a divinely ordained natural order, he concludes, provided these men with their model for the social and moral order. The worldview cherished by these men was shared by many Americans educated in antebellum schools, colleges, and law offices. Theirs was not a reactionary conservatism rabidly opposed to change but a deeply ingrained belief in immutable moral truths upon which civilization itself depended. If we are to understand the Gilded Age, as Bailey so convincingly demonstrates, we must acknowledge that ideas matter.