Featured Acquisitions - Alexander Campbell King Law Library

Featured Acquisitions - July 2007

See also: Recent Acquisitions in Selected Subject Areas


		Judicial Review and the Rights of Private Parties in EU Law by Angela Ward Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007 KJE4010 .W37 2007 Annex 3rd Floor Judicial Review and the Rights of Private Parties in EC Law provides a detailed exposition of the rights of private parties when they seek to either enforce or challenge laws emanating from the European Community legal order. The book is the first of its kind in that it compares the efficacy of avenues of legal redress that are available in these two types of litigation. It explains that there is a substantial disjuncture in standards of judicial reviewnullit is significantly more difficult for private parties to obtain an effective remedy when contesting the legality of EC measures, than it is to obtain an adequate judicial sanction when Member State laws fail to comply with lawful EC rules. This revelation in turn funnels into the debate on the legal structure of the European Union and its legitimacy, and more particularly the role of the European Court of Justice in crafting a federal constitutional design. The book concludes with some suggestions for amendment to the EC Treaty which may alleviate some of the tasks presently born by the by the Court of First Instance and the Court of Justice, and assist in justifying the divergence inherent in judicial review as it presently stands.
		Retained by the People: The "Silent" Ninth Amendment and the Constitutional Rights Americans Don't Know They Have by Daniel A. Farber New York : Basic Books, c2007 KF4558 9th .F37 2007 Balcony The Ninth Amendment lurks like an unexploded mine within the Bill of Rights. Its wording is direct: "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." However, there is not a single Supreme Court decision based on it. Even the famously ambitious Warren Court preferred to rely on the weaker support of the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause for many of its decisions on individual rights. Since that era, mainstream conservatives have grown actively hostile to the very mention of the Ninth Amendment. Daniel Farber, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley, makes an informed and lucid argument for employing the Ninth Amendment in support of a large variety of rights whose constitutional basis is now shaky. The case he makes for the application of this unused amendment has profound implications in almost every aspect of our daily lives.
		The Creation-Evolution Debate: Historical Perspectives by Edward J. Larson Athens : University of Georgia Press, c2007 BL263 .L32 2007 Basement Few issues besides evolution have so strained Americans' professed tradition of tolerance. Few historians besides Pulitzer Prize winner Edward J. Larson have so perceptively chronicled evolution's divisive presence on the American scene. This slim volume reviews the key aspects, current and historical, of the creation-evolution debate in the United States. Larson discusses such topics as the transatlantic response to Darwinism, the American controversy over teaching evolution in public schools, and the religious views of American scientists. He recalls the theological qualms about evolution held by some leading scientists of Darwin's time. He looks at the 2006 Dover, Pennsylvania, court decision on teaching Intelligent Design and other cases leading back to the landmark 1925 Scopes trial. Drawing on surveys that Larson conducted, he discusses attitudes of American scientists toward the existence of God and the afterlife. By looking at the changing motivations and backgrounds of the stakeholders in the creation-evolution debate--clergy, scientists, lawmakers, educators, and others--Larson promotes a more nuanced view of the question than most of us have. This is no incidental benefit for Larson's readers; it is one of the book's driving purposes. If we cede the debate to those who would frame it simplistically rather than embrace its complexity, warns Larson, we will not advance beyond the naive regard of organized religion as the enemy of intellectual freedom or the equally myopic myth of the scientist as courageous loner willing to die for the truth.
		I vy Briefs: True Tales of a Neurotic Law Student by Martha Kimes New York : Atria, 2007 KF373.K473 A3 2007 Balcony From first-day nerves to first-year grades, from bizarre job interviews to bar exam insanity, Ivy Briefs pulls back the curtain on the marbled halls of law school, revealing the absurdity often bubbling beneath the surface. Meet Martha Kimes: a naive small-town girl with strong neurotic tendencies who has (due to an inexplicable stroke of luck) been admitted to Columbia Law School. She's a Midwesterner in the middle of Manhattan, a student on the verge of a nervous breakdown. In her candid memoir -- the best of its kind since One L and the only one written by a woman -- Kimes makes her way through law school, doing battle with a memorable cast of characters: The Sadistic Professor: Every law student's nemesis, the Sadistic Professor takes pity on no one. The Socratic Method is his favorite torture device, and he's got staying power that rivals that of the Energizer Bunny. The Gunner: So enamored with the sound of his own voice, he finds it physically impossible to keep his hand from gunning up into the air every time a professor asks a question. Ten minutes into the start of the school year, everyone is already sick of the Gunner. The Do-gooder: Lurking behind a kind exterior is a pit bull ready to pounce on those who don't plan to devote their legal careers to public service. But would she be so quick to categorize all those who dare go into corporate law as loathsome, soulless warriors for the devil if she, too, had student loans to repay? The Boarding School Bastard: He wears a firmly pressed pin-striped oxford shirt and has a condescending attitude bigger than most European countries. By definition he is better than you because he went to Exeter. And he'll never let you forget it. With sharp wit, dead-on aim, and a healthy dose of self-deprecation, Kimes proves that it is possible to survive law school with both your sense of humor and your sanity intact.
		Shell Game: One Family's Long Battle Against Big Oil by J. Michael Veron Guilford, Conn. : Lyons, c2007 KF228.V47 V47 2007 Balcony Shell Oil was accustomed to getting its way in Louisiana. With deep pockets, teams of attorneys, and influential lobbyists in the state legislature, the second-largest oil company in the world could demand--and get--essentially anything it wanted. Until it met Michael Veron and his family. Shell Game is the dramatic, fast-paced true account of a nine-year battle pitting a Louisiana family of modest means against Shell in an effort to clean up decades of pollution on the family's property. Bullied, intimidated, and dubbed "the Beverly Hillbillies" by Shell's highly paid attorneys, author Michael Veron's relatives refused to buckle-and continued their fight against tremendous odds. A small-town lawyer, Veron led the fight against Shell. His first-person account of the struggle is gripping, tense, and ultimately uplifting. It is a story of greed and great passion and of one family's refusal to back down in the face of unrelenting pressure. Shell Game is the story of how one family not only righted a wrong, but also changed the way oil companies operate.
		Understanding the Founding: The Crucial Questions by Alan Gibson Lawrence : University Press of Kansas, c2007 KF4541 .G534 2007 Balcony Over the course of the last century, scholars have furiously debated four questions concerning the Founders and their act of creation. Were the Framers motivated by their economic interests? How democratic was the Framers' Constitution? Should we interpret the Founding using philosophical or strictly historical approaches? What traditions of political thought were most important to the Framers? In Understanding the Founding: The Crucial Questions, Alan Gibson examines the preconceptions that scholars bring to these questions, explores the deepest sources of scholars' disagreements over them, and suggests new and thoughtful lines of interpretation and inquiry. Building on his previous work, Interpreting the Founding, which offers a synoptic overview of the competing perspectives that have informed modern scholarship on the Founders, Gibson now examines this same century of scholarship from the standpoint of the most important debates that it has generated. In evaluating the economic interpretation of the Constitution, Gibson establishes what has and has not been proven about the economic and social characteristics of the Federalists and Anti-Federalists and makes suggestions for future research. Gibson's analysis of the character of the original Constitution sets forth a complex and judicious view of the Framers' intentions regarding democracy, arguing that scholars have often disagreed, not because they have vastly different understandings of the Framers' aims, but because they differ among them-selves about how to define democracy. In examining the controversy over interpretive approaches, Gibson suggests a new synthesis of the insights of linguistic contextualists and philosophical rationalists; and in revisiting the liberalism-versus-republicanism debate, he analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of alternative accounts of the interactions of multiple traditions in the political thought of the Founders. Gibson's incisive analysis brings clarity to these complex and sprawling debates and sheds new light on the institutional and intellectual foundations of the American political system. Urging us to move forward from a puerile affection for the Founders to a deeper understanding of their place in the history of political thought and a more balanced assessment of the strengths and limitations of the system that they founded, he also provides a provocative view of the proper role of the Founders' ideas today.
		Free at Last to Vote: The Alabama Origins of the 1965 Voting Rights Act by Brian K. Landsberg Lawrence, Kan. : University Press of Kansas, c2007 KF4891 .L35 2007 Balcony Although the heroism of last century's freedom marches will long be credited for ending racial discrimination, civil rights legislation owes much to work done more quietly in the district courtrooms of the South. This book expands our understanding of how the Voting Rights Act came about by focusing on several key cases in Alabama that paved the way for this landmark legislation. Brian Landsberg-himself a participant in many of these trials-argues that Department of Justice litigation contributed significantly to the content of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act. His close analysis of these trials shows how they helped pave the way for the dramatic expansion of federal power in combating racist enforcement of voting laws. Focusing on three out of the seventy voting rights cases filed between 1957 and 1965, he reveals how the DOJ, newly armed with authority to bring civil suits against voting discrimination, aggressively pursued its efforts to enforce the Reconstruction Amendments. These cases in Elmore, Sumter, and Perry counties helped to expose the chasm between the objectives of the Fifteenth Amendment and the practices of southern voter registrars-and the equally deep chasm between practices in the Deep South and those in the rest of the country. The VRA adopted many of the stringent remedies that emerged from these trials, including the appointment of federal officials to observe elections and maintain lists of eligible voters and the need for federal approval for changes in local voting procedures. Landsberg highlights a long-neglected but vitally important chapter in the history of the civil rights movement and puts a human face on the struggle for the right to vote, enhancing our understanding of the efforts blacks made to register, the doubts of even moderate whites, and the role of federal agents in protecting voter rights. His study is especially welcome in light of the controversy surrounding the VRA's recent renewal in 2006, which caught glimpses of the pre-VRA South, and current concerns over new and emerging forms of disenfranchisement.
		The Fundamentals of EU Law Revisited: Assessing the Impact of the Constitutional Debate edited by Catherine Barnard Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007 KJE947 .F86 2007 Annex 3rd Floor With the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty in French and Dutch referenda, the European Union received a severe blow. This precipitated a period of reflection and soul searching. How far should the fundamental principles that shape the Union be re-assessed in the light of the Constitutional debate? Can the Constitutional Treaty be rescued from failure? If not what other options for constitutional reform are available? Does the Treaty's rejection signal the failure of the Union's goal of democratic governance? The essays in this volume examine the impact of the debate surrounding the future of the European Constitution on the development of core areas of EU law and policy. Opening with a discussion of the shifting conceptions of European democracy, the volume proceeds to look at key areas of substantive law against the backdrop of the Constitutional Treaty, from Foreign Relations to Fundamental Rights, Social Policy to Justice and Home Affairs. The book concludes with an examination of potential solutions to the constitutional crisis, and models for future constitutional reform.
		Law as a Moral Idea by Nigel Simmonds Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007 K247.6 .S56 2007 Balcony This book argues that the institutions of law, and the structures of legal thought, are to be understood by reference to a moral ideal. The idea of law is an ideal of freedom, or independence from the power of others. The moral value and justificatory force of law are not contingent upon circumstance, but intrinsic to its character as law. Doctrinal legal arguments are shaped by rival conceptions of the conditions for realisation of the idea of law. In making these claims, the author rejects the viewpoint of much contemporary legal theory, and seeks to move jurisprudence closer to an older tradition of philosophical reflection upon law, exemplified by Hobbes and Kant. Modern analytical jurisprudence has tended to view these older philosophies as confused precisely in so far as they equate an understanding of law's nature with a revelation of its moral basis. According to most contemporary legal theorists, the understanding and analysis of existing institutions is quite distinct from any enterprise of moral reflection. But the relationship between ideals and practices is much more intimate than this approach would suggest. Some institutions can be properly understood only when they are viewed as imperfect attempts to realise moral or political ideals; and some ideals can be conceived only by reference to their expression in institutions.
		When Sex Counts: Making Babies and Making Law by Sherry F. Colb Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers : Distributed by National Book Network, c2007 KF3760 .C65 2007 Balcony Should a woman who refuses a "medically necessary" C-section be prosecuted for the murder of her stillborn child? Should a pregnant drug-addict be arrested for distributing narcotics to a minor? Why do people continue to frown upon public breastfeeding, when the law protects it as a mother's right? Is date rape a less serious harm than stranger rape? Does an employer who requires female, but not male, employees to wear makeup discriminate on the basis of sex? Should employers protect women from hazardous work conditions solely on the grounds that they may become pregnant? Through these ripped-from-the-headlines, contemporary examples, law professor and legal commentator Sherry Colb explores the current terrain of the battle between the sexes. In her intriguing and ever-so-timely book, she makes a compelling social, legal, and political case for taking a person's sex into account for some matters but not for all. While unspoken biases persist in government agencies, in the courts, in business, and elsewhere, When Sex Counts takes a hard look at sex discrimination and examines how emerging law and public policy grapple with the differences between the sexes while simultaneously struggling to maintain a commitment to equal treatment under the law..
		Naturalizing Jurisprudence: Essays on American Legal Realism and Naturalism in Legal Philosophy by Brian Leiter Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007 K341 .L45 2007 Balcony Brian Leiter is widely recognized as the leading philosophical interpreter of the jurisprudence of American Legal Realism, as well as the most influential proponent of the relevance of the naturalistic turn in philosophy to the problems of legal philosophy. This volume collects newly revised versions of ten of his best-known essays, which set out his reinterpretation of the Legal Realists as prescient philosophical naturalists; critically engage with jurisprudential responses to Legal Realism, from legal positivism to Critical Legal Studies; connect the Realist program to the methodology debate in contemporary jurisprudence; and explore the general implications of a naturalistic world view for problems about the objectivity of law and morality. Leiter has supplied a lengthy new introductory essay, as well as postscripts to several of the essays, in which he responds to challenges to his interpretive and philosophical claims by academic lawyers and philosophers.
		God on Trial: Dispatches from America's Religious Battlefields by Peter Irons New York : Viking, 2007 KF4783 .I76 2007 Balcony An in-depth look at five recent landmark court battles over the separation of church and state Over the past two decades, federal courts have become contentious battlefields in America's growing religious wars. Since 1989, five momentous court cases have divided communities-and the nation. Peter Irons, a noted constitutional scholar, lawyer, and author of the bestselling May It Please the Court, delivers a compelling narrative accompanied by first-person accounts from both sides of the fight in these historic cases. In 1989, residents of San Diego challenged a forty-three-foot-high cross in the center of a public park; 1995 brought a dispute in a Texas town over the recital of prayers at high school football games; in rural Kentucky in 1999, a lawsuit was filed against displaying the Ten Commandments in county courthouses; in 2000, a California parent challenged the words "under God" in his daughter's daily Pledge of Allegiance. And, finally, in 2004, parents in Dover, Pennsylvania, challenged the school board's requirement that "intelligent design" be taught as an alternative to Darwin's theory of evolution. Irons's detailed, in-depth investigation of each of these trials is followed by interviews with the people involved to provide a complete picture of the ongoing wars for "the soul of America."
		Arbitrary Justice: The Power of the American Prosecutor by Angela J. Davis Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007 KF9640 .D38 2007 Balcony Inscribed on the walls of the United States Department of Justice are the lofty words: "The United States wins its point whenever justice is done its citizens in the courts." Yet what happens when prosecutors, the most powerful officials in the criminal justice system, seek convictions instead of justice? Why are cases involving educated, well-to-do victims often prosecuted more vigorously than those involving poor, uneducated victims? Why do wealthy defendants frequently enjoy more lenient plea bargains than the disadvantaged? In this timely work, Angela J. Davis examines the expanding power of prosecutors, from mandatory minimum sentencing laws that enhance prosecutorial control over the outcome of cases to the increasing politicization of the office. Drawing on her dozen years of experience as a public defender, Davis demonstrates how the everyday, legal exercise of prosecutorial discretion is responsible for tremendous inequities in criminal justice. Davis uses powerful stories of individuals caught in the system to illustrate how the day-to-day practices and decisions of well-meaning prosecutors produce unfair and unequal treatment of both defendants and victims, often along race and class lines. These disparities are particularly evident in prosecutors' charging and plea-bargaining decisions and in their muddy relationships with victims. Prosecutors not only hold vast power, Davis argues, but they are also under-regulated and lack accountability. The current standards of practice for prosecutors are unenforceable, while the mechanisms that purport to hold prosecutors accountable are weak and ineffectual. Not only does lack of oversight result in injustices, it may even foster a climate tolerant of unfair practices and in some cases, misconduct. Offering a sensible agenda for comprehensive review and reform, Arbitrary Justice challenges the legal community and concerned citizens to pursue and enact meaningful standards of conduct and effective methods of accountability to help prosecutors serve their communities and the interests of justice.
		Poverty and Fundamental Rights: The Justification and Enforcement of Socio-Economic Rights by David Bilchitz Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007 K3240 .B54 2007 2007 Balcony This book addresses the pressing issue of severe poverty and inequality, and questions why violations of socio-economic rights are treated with less urgency than violations of civil and political rights, such as the right to freedom of speech or to vote? Socio-economic rights have been widely regarded as aspirational goals, rhetorically useful, but having few practical implications for government policy and the distribution of resources within a polity. It is not therefore surprising that socio-economic rights have been systematically neglected in the world today, with millions still lacking access to even basic shelter, food or health-care. This book seeks to provide a sustained argument for placing renewed emphasis upon socio-economic rights in the fight against desperate poverty. It utilizes a combination of political philosophy, constitutional law, and public policy in its focus on the right to food, to housing, and to health-care. Part I involves the development of a philosophical theory of rights that provides a common normative foundation for both civil and political rights and socio-economic rights. This theory involves developing an understanding of value that recognizes individuals have fundamental interests of differing levels of urgency. It also involves drawing an important distinction between conditional rights that flow purely from a normative focus on the equal importance of individuals and unconditional rights that involve competing normative and pragmatic considerations. A general theory of judicial review is also put forward that provides a justification for judicial involvement in the enforcement of socio-economic rights. Part II then considers the implications of this general philosophical theory for the interpretation and enforcement of socio-economic rights in law. The focus of this more applied discussion is upon South Africa, where entrenched, directly justifiable socio-economic rights are expressly protected in the constitution. The current approach of the South African Constitutional Court to their interpretation and enforcement is considered and criticized primarily for failing to provide sufficient content to such rights. A modified version of the minimum core approach to socio-economic rights is proposed as an alterative way which is supported by the philosophical theory developed in the first part of the book. This approach requires priority to be given to worst off in society through placing a heavy burden of justification on any society that fails to meet the minimal interests of individuals. It also requires concrete steps to be taken towards realising a higher level of provision that guarantees individuals the necessary conditions for realising a wide range of purposes. This is also shown to have important policy implications both for developing and developed countries that can, it is hoped, assist in creating an urgency and commitment towards eradicating extreme poverty.