Featured Acquisitions

Featured Acquisitions - July 2005


		Labour Rights as Human Rights edited by Philip Alston Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2005 K1705 .L334 2005 Balcony Are efforts to protect workers' rights compatible with the forces of globalization? How can minimum standards designed to protect labor rights be implemented in a world in which national labor law is more and more at the mercy of international forces beyond its control? And does it make any difference if we see rights such as the right to freedom of association, to non-discrimination in the workplace, to freedom from child labor, and to safe and healthy working conditions in terms of international human rights law? Or are they more appropriately seen as 'principles' to be promoted as and where appropriate? The contributors to this volume argue that international agreements and institutions are of central importance if labor rights are to be protected in a globalized economy. But the report cards they give to the World Trade Organization, the European Union, NAFTA, and the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas are generally very critical. While there is a strong rhetorical commitment to labour rights, at least on the part of the US and the EU, the substance of what has been achieved to date is hardly impressive. The role of the International Labor Organization is central and the authors explore some of the options that are open to governments, civil society, and the labor movement in the years ahead.
		Insincere Promises: The Law of Misrepresented Intent by Ian Ayres and Gregory Klass New Haven, Conn. : Yale University Press, c2005 K830 .A99 2005 Balcony How can a promise be a lie? Answer: when the promisor never intended to perform the promise. Such incidences of promissory fraud are frequently litigated because they can result in punitive damages awards. And an insincere promisor can even be held criminally liable. Yet courts have provided little guidance about what the scope of liability should be or what proof should be required. This book--the first ever devoted to the analysis of promissory fraud--answers these questions. Filled with examples of insincere promising from the case law as well as from literature and popular culture, the book is an indispensable guide for those who practice or teach contract law. The authors explore what promises say from the perspectives of philosophy, economics, and the law. They identify four chief mistakes that courts make in promissory fraud cases. And they offer a theory for how courts and practitioners should handle promissory fraud cases.
		From Madness to Mutiny: Why Mothers Are Running from the Family Courts--and What Can Be Done about It by Amy Neustein and Michael Lesher Boston : Northeastern University Press ; Hanover : University Press of New England, c2005 KF505.5 .N48 2005 Balcony In this astonishing book, sociologist Amy Neustein and attorney Michael Lesher examine the serious dysfunction of the nation’s family courts—a dysfunction that too often results in the courts’ failure to protect the people they were designed to help. Specifically, the authors chronicle cases in which mothers who believe their children have been sexually abused by their fathers are disbelieved, ridiculed or punished for trying to protect them. All too often the mother, in such a case, is deemed the unstable parent, and her children are removed from her care, to be placed in foster care or even with the father credibly accused of abusing them. Employing a special form of sociological inquiry known as ethnomethodology, they show how judges, private attorneys, law guardians, child protective service caseworkers and court-appointed mental health experts on a day-to-day basis collaboratively produce a closed and claustrophobic family court setting that makes practical sense to the system’s practitioners—but looks like madness to everyone else. They also describe the social interactive work of mothers trapped inside the system. Faced with judicial rulings that seem to violate their most basic parental values, these mothers litigate furiously, take their stories to the press, go on hunger strikes, or turn fugitive with their children through a modern-day “underground railroad.” From Madness to Mutiny offers an overview of family court malfunction and the parental mutiny that results from it. The authors outline the new legal landscape that makes the madness possible and show how the system has failed to react to severe criticism from media and legislators. And they discuss ways to reform the family courts, with the goal of transforming them from instruments of punishment to true institutions of justice.
		Justice Among Nations: On the Moral Basis of Power and Peace by Thomas L. Pangle and Peter J. Ahrensdorf Lawrence : University Press of Kansas, c1999 JZ1306 .P36 1999 Sohn Library In the post–Cold War era, we have lost the clarity that once characterized our vision of international conflict. Foreign affairs are no longer defined solely by the ideological battles fought between capitalism and communism or by the competition between two great nuclear superpowers. That oversimplified view has been replaced by an increasing awareness of the moral and political complexity surrounding international relations. To help us deal with this new reality, Thomas Pangle and Peter Ahrensdorf provide a critical introduction to the most important conceptions of international justice, spanning 2,500 years of intellectual history from Thucydides and Plato to Morgenthau and Waltz. Their study shows how older traditions of political philosophy remain relevant to current debates in international relations, and how political thinkers through the centuries can help us deepen our understanding of today's stalemate between realism and idealism. Pangle and Ahrensdorf guide the reader through a sequence of theoretical frameworks for understanding the moral basis of international relations: the cosmopolitan vision of the classical philosophers, the "just war" teachings of medieval theologians, the revolutionary realism of Machiavelli, the Enlightenment idealism of Kant, and the neorealism of twentieth-century theorists. They clarify the core of each philosopher's conceptions of international relations, examine the appeal of each position, and bring these alternatives into mutually illuminating juxtaposition. The authors clearly show that appreciating the fundamental questions pursued by these philosophers can help us avoid dogmatism, abstraction, or oversimplification when considering the moral character of international relations. Justice Among Nations restores the study of the great works of political theory to its natural place within the discipline of international relations as it retrieves the question of international justice as a major theme of political philosophy. It provides our moral compass with new points of orientation and invites serious readers to grapple with some of the most perplexing issues of our time.
		Suing the Gun Industry: A Battle at the Crossroads of Gun Control & Mass Torts edited by Timothy D. Lytton Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c2005 KF3941 .S85 2005 Balcony Gun litigation deserves a closer look amid the lessons learned from decades of legal action against the makers of asbestos, Agent Orange, silicone breast implants, and tobacco products, among others. Suing the Gun Industry collects the diverse and often conflicting opinions of an outstanding cast of specialists in law, public health, public policy, and criminology and distills them into a complete picture of the intricacies of gun litigation and its repercussions for gun control. Using multiple perspectives, Suing the Gun Industry scrutinizes legal action against the gun industry. Such a broad approach highlights the role of this litigation within two larger controversies: one over government efforts to reduce gun violence, and the other over the use of mass torts to regulate unpopular industries. Readers will find Suing the Gun Industry a timely and accessible picture of these complex and controversial issues.
		Diversity in America: Keeping Government at a Safe Distance by Peter H. Schuck Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003 E184.A1 S37 2003 Basement America is the first society in history to make ethno-racial diversity an affirmative social ideal rather than viewing it as a fearful menace, as almost all other societies still do. Since the 1960s, America has pursued this ideal in many forms--not only to remedy past discrimination against minorities but also to increase diversity for its own sake. It is high time for an accounting. How diverse are we now and what can we expect in the future? Why do we, unlike the rest of the world, think that diversity is desirable and that more of it is better? What risks does diversity pose? What are the roles of law, politics, and informal social controls in promoting diversity? How can we manage diversity better? In this magisterial book, Peter H. Schuck explains how Americans have understood diversity, how we came to embrace it, how the government regulates it now, and how we can do better. He mobilizes a wealth of conceptual, historical, legal, political, and sociological analysis to argue that diversity is best managed not by the government but by families, ethnic groups, religious communities, employers, voluntary organizations, and other civil society institutions. Analyzing some of the most controversial policy arenas where politics and diversity intersect--immigration, multiculturalism, language, affirmative action, residential neighborhoods, religious practices, faith-based social services, and school choice--Schuck reveals the conflicts, trade-offs, and ironies entailed by our commitment to the diversity ideal. He concludes with recommendations to help us manage the challenge of diversity in the future.
		The Common Law Tradition: A Collective Portrait of Five Legal Scholars by George W. Liebmann New Brunswick, N.J. : Transaction Publishers, c2005 KF380 .L54 2005 Balcony This book commemorates a place and a time in American law teaching, but more importantly, an outlook: the common law tradition. That outlook was empirical and tolerant. These values were carried into expression by a group of people who were not part of a cult or faction nor ruled by the herd instinct. George W. Liebmann has prepared a collective portrait of five scholars who epitomize the tradition. The focus is Chicago in the 1960s, when the “law and economics” movement occupied a rather minor place. The five figures considered—Edward H. Levi, Harry Kalven, Jr., Karl Llewellyn, Philip Kurland, and Kenneth Culp Davis—did much to broaden the perspectives of the legal academy. Levi made use of sociology, economics, and comparative law. Kalven collaborated with sociologists on the Jury Project and with economists on tax law and auto compensation plans. Llewellyn’s commitment to empirical research underpinned his work on the Uniform Commercial Code. Kurland’s approach to constitutional law was highlighted by his insistence on the relevance of legal history. Davis was an energetic comparativist in his work on administrative law. What distinguished these Chicagoans is that their work was practical and rooted in the law, and hence yielded concrete applications. The group’s diversity, the tolerant atmosphere in which they taught and wrote, and the attachment of its individual members to empirical approaches differentiate them from today’s legal scholars and make their ideas of continuing importance. The Common Law Tradition examines these figures’ lives and achievements, and assesses the extent to which their immediate agendas were realized. In a year devoted to celebration of the constitutional heroics instigated by Brown v. Board of Education, this book provides a reminder of what has been lost during the last fifty years: a consensual, gradualist, and empirical approach to law reform.
		Cash, Color, and Colonialism: The Politics of Tribal Acknowledgment by Renee Ann Cramer Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, c2005 KF8210.R32 C73 2005 Balcony Within the context of U.S.-Indian law, federal acknowledgment establishes a trust relationship between an Indian tribe and the U.S. government. As a result of that trust, the tribe receives significant benefits, including tax-exempt status, reclamation rights, and—of perhaps greatest modern-day interest to the American public—the right to administer and profit from its own casinos. Some tribes, however, have not been federally acknowledged, or, in more common language, “recognized.” In Cash, Color, and Colonialism, Renée Ann Cramer offers a comprehensive analysis of the federal acknowledgment process, placing it in historical, legal, and social context. Exploring the formal and informal struggles over acknowledgment, Cramer argues that we cannot fully understand the process until we understand three contexts within which it operates: the growth of casino interests since 1988, the prevalence of racial attitudes concerning Indian identity, and the colonial legacy of U.S.-Indian law.
		Midnight Assassin: A Murder in America's Heartland by Patricia L. Bryan & Thomas Wolf Chapel Hill, N.C. : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005 HV6533.I8 B79 2005 Basement In 1900, Margaret Hossack, the wife of a prominent Iowa farmer, was arrested for bludgeoning her husband to death with an ax while their children slept upstairs. The community was outraged: How could a woman commit such an act of violence? Firsthand accounts describe the victim, John Hossack, as a cruel and unstable man. Perhaps Margaret Hossack was acting out of fear. Or perhaps the story she told was true—that an intruder broke into the house, killed her husband while she slept soundly beside him, and was still on the loose. Newspapers across the country carried the story, and community sentiment was divided over her guilt. At trial, Margaret was convicted of murder, but later was released on appeal. Ultimately, neither her innocence nor her guilt was ever proved. Patricia Bryan and Thomas Wolf examine the harsh realities of farm life at the turn of the century and look at the plight of women—legally, socially, and politically—during that period. What also emerges is the story of early feminist Susan Glaspell, who covered the Hossack case as a young reporter and later used it as the basis for her acclaimed work “ A Jury of Her Peers.” Midnight Assassin expertly renders the American character and experience: our obsession with crime, how justice is achieved, and the powerful influence of the media.
		Cult of Power: Sex Discrimination in Corporate America and What Can Be Done About It by Martha Burk New York : Scribner, c2005 HQ1426 .B845 2005 Basement It all began with a letter. In 2002, Dr. Martha Burk, chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations, wrote to the Augusta National Golf Club, host of the prestigious Masters tournament, expressing concern over the club's all-male membership policy and urging it to change. The resulting firestorm surrounding the club's secret membership roster of high-ranking corporate executives and its refusal to admit women was never really about golf. It was about much more -- becoming the linchpin of a national dialogue about the role of women in society not seen since the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas debate. And, especially in executive suites and boardrooms, the debate is far from resolved. Cult of Power is an in-depth account of the broader ramifications stemming from the initial controversy, written by the woman who was its center. Burk lays bare the reasons the closed gates of Augusta National symbolize all the ways women are still barred from the highest echelons of power -- in government, social and religious organizations, and most important, in corporate America -- and why we must change the system. In a stunning rebuttal to the reductionist claim that Augusta National is just about golf or "private association," Burk unveils, for the first time, the extraordinary web of business, government, and philanthropic affiliations of Augusta National members. The list is shocking evidence of the impact and influence the members have and damning proof that there is more going on behind club gates than just a game. It really is a "cult of power." In dynamic, no-nonsense prose, Burk weaves together anecdotes, documents, and other previously undisclosed material with a discussion of why gender discrimination is still accepted at the highest levels of business and how it affects all working women, from the top tier to the rank and file. Like Susan Faludi in Backlash, Burk addresses the systemic nature of the barriers: barriers ranging from male acculturation to employment laws that don't work to the hypocrisy of corporate diversity initiatives and "awards" for good works. Cult of Power is an important contribution to our understanding of how the attitudes, rules, processes, and pastimes of corporate America perpetuate an antiquated and unbalanced system. But it also provides real solutions and concrete examples that clearly show what must be done to end gender discrimination and bring about true parity in the workplace. Cult of Power is a rallying call for all women -- a clear-sighted prescription for accountability, meaningful action, and real change.
		The Disability Pendulum: The First Decade of the Americans with Disabilities Act by Ruth Colker New York : New York University Press, c2005 KF480 .C648 2005 Balcony Signed into law in July 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) became effective two years later, and court decisions about the law began to multiply in the middle of the decade. In The Disability Pendulum, Ruth Colker presents the first legislative history of the enactment of the ADA in Congress and analyzes the first decade of judicial decisions under the act. She assesses the success and failure of the first ten years of litigation under the ADA, focusing on its three major titles: employment, public entities, and public accommodations. The Disability Pendulum argues that despite an initial atmosphere of bipartisan support with the expectation that the ADA would make a significant difference in the lives of individuals with disabilities, judicial decisions have not been consistent with Congress’ intentions. The courts have operated like a pendulum, at times swinging to a pro-disabled plaintiff and then back again to a pro-defendant stance. Colker, whose work on the ADA has been cited by the Supreme Court, offers insightful and practical suggestions on where to amend the act to make it more effective in defending disability rights, and also explains judicial hostility toward enforcing the act.