Featured Acquisitions

Back From the Dead: One Woman's Search for the Men Who Walked Off America's Death Row by Joan M. Cheever
Chichester, England ; Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley, 2006
HV6785 .C44 2006 Basement

What would happen if the United States abolished the death penalty and emptied its Death Rows? If killers were released from prison? What would they do with their second chance to live? Would they kill again?

Back From The Dead is the story of 589 former death row inmates who, through a lottery of fate, were given a second chance at life in 1972 when the death penalty was abolished; it returned to the United States four years later.

During the years she represented Walter Williams on Texas' Death Row, Cheever always wondered what would happen if his death sentence was reversed and he was eventually released from prison. Would he have killed again? Two years after Williams' execution, Cheever was determined to find the answer. Leaving her young family and comfortable life in suburbia, she traveled across the U.S. and into the lives and homes of former Death Row inmates, armed only with a tape recorder, notepad, a cell phone that didn't always work, and a lot of faith. In Back from the Dead , Cheever describes her own journey and reveals these tales of second chances: of tragedy and failure, racism and injustice, and redemption and rehabilitation.

Spoiling For A Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer by Brooke A. Masters
New York : Times Books/Henry Holt, 2006
KF373.S65 M37 2006 Balcony

Few politicians have burst onto the American scene with as much impact as Eliot Spitzer. He has exposed wrongdoing by stock analysts, mutual fund managers, and insurance brokers, and he has investigated corporations that have misled or defrauded investors and consumers. When federal regulators have fallen down on their responsibilities, Spitzer has stepped in to protect ordinary, middle-class Americans. His actions as the New York State attorney general have made companies change the way they do business, which in turn affects every American with a retirement plan, an insurance policy, or a prescription to fill.

No reporter has had better or more complete behind-the-scenes access to Spitzer's operation--and to the strategies that have underpinned his crusade against these powerful forces in the American economy--than Brooke A. Masters of The Washington Post. In Spoiling for a Fight, she presents a portrait that is at once dramatic and revealing, raising the question of whether Spitzer's way of conducting government business is good or bad for America.

Combining passion and zeal with a savvy understanding of the press, Spitzer has brought down some of the biggest names in American finance and now has his sights set on higher office. This revelatory book shows Americans how Spitzer has transformed their lives and what his crusade could mean for the future.

Reconceiving the Family: Critique on the American Law institute's Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution edited by Robin Fretwell Wilson
Cambridge [UK] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006
KF535 .R43 2006 Balcony

This book provides a critical examination of and reflection on the American Law Institute's (ALI) Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution: Analysis and Recommendations ('Principles'), arguably the most sweeping proposal for family law reform attempted in the U.S. over the last quarter century. The volume is a collaborative work of individuals from diverse perspectives and disciplines who explore the fundamental questions about the nature of family, parenthood, and child support. The contributors are all recognized authorities on aspects of family law and provide commentary on the principles examined by the ALI - fault, custody, child support, property division, spousal support, and domestic partnerships, utilizing a wide range of analytical tools, including economic theory, constitutional law, social science data, and linguistic analysis. This volume also includes the perspectives of U.S. judges and legislators and leading family law scholars in the United Kingdom, Europe, Canada and Australia.

The Global Debate Over Constitutional Property: Lessons for American Takings Jurisprudence by Gregory S. Alexander
Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2006
K721.5 .A44 2006 Balcony

Countries around the world are heatedly debating whether property should be a constitutional right. But American lawyers have largely ignored this debate, which is divided into two clear camps: those who believe making property a constitutional right undermines democracy by fostering inequality, and those who believe it provides the security necessary to make democracy possible. In The Global Debate over Constitutional Property, Gregory Alexander recasts this discussion, arguing that both sides overlook a key problem: that constitutional protection, or lack thereof, has little bearing on how a society actually treats property.

A society's traditions and culture, Alexander argues, have a much greater effect on property rights. Laws must aim, then, to change cultural ideas of property, rather than deem whether one has the right to own it. Ultimately, Alexander builds a strong case for improving American takings law by borrowing features from the laws of other countries--particularly those laws based on the idea that owning property not only confers rights, but also entails responsibilities to society as a whole.

The Devil's Advocates: Greatest Closing Arguments in Criminal Law by Michael S. Lief and H. Mitchell Caldwell
New York : Scribner, c2006
KF220 .L54 2006 Balcony

Criminal law is considered by many to be the most exciting of the legal specialties, and here the authors turn to the type of dramatic crimes and trials that have so captivated the public -- becoming fodder for countless television shows and legal thrillers. But the eight cases in this collection have also set historical precedents and illuminated underlying principles of the American criminal justice system.

Future president John Adams makes clear that even the most despised and vilified criminal is entitled to a legal defense in the argument he delivers on behalf of the British soldiers who shot and killed five Americans during the Boston Massacre.

The always-controversial temporary-insanity defense makes its debut within sight of the White House when, in front of horrified onlookers, a prominent congressman guns down the district attorney over an extramarital affair.

Clarence Darrow provides a ringing defense of a black family charged with using deadly force to defend themselves from a violent mob -- an argument that refines the concept of self-defense and its applicability to all races.

The treason trial of Aaron Burr, accused of plotting to "steal" the western territories of the United States and form a new country with himself as its head, offers a fascinating glimpse into a rare type of prosecution, as well as a look at one of the most interesting traitors in the nation's history.

Perhaps the best-known case in the book is that of Ernesto Miranda, the accused rapist whose trial led to the Supreme Court decision requiring police to advise suspects of their rights to remain silent and to have an attorney present -- their Miranda rights.

Each of the eight cases presented here is given legal and cultural context, including a brief historical introduction, a biographical sketch of the attorneys involved, highlights of trial testimony, analysis of the closing arguments, and a summary of the trial's impact on its participants and our country. In clear, jargon-free prose, Michael S Lief and H. Mitchell Caldwell make these pivotal cases come to vibrant life for every reader.

Corporate Bodies and Guilty Minds: The Failure of Corporate Criminal Liability by William S. Laufer
Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2006
KF9236.5 .L38 2006 Balcony

The collapse of Enron. The convictions at Arthur Andersen. The bankruptcy of WorldCom. We live in an era defined by corporate greed and malfeasance--one in which unprecedented accounting frauds and failures of compliance run rampant. Allegations against some of the most revered companies in the United States continue to raise disturbing questions about business ethics, good corporate citizenship, and organizational accountability. To calm investor fears, revive perceptions of legitimacy in markets, and demonstrate the resolve of state and federal regulators, a host of reforms, high-profile investigations, and symbolic prosecutions have been conducted. But are they enough?

In this timely work, William S. Laufer argues that even with recent legal reforms--and those about to be enacted--corporate criminal law continues to be ineffective. Corporate Bodies and Guilty Minds outlines the many reasons why this is so. Laufer considers the failure of courts and legislatures to fashion liability rules that fairly attribute blame for organizations. He analyzes the games that corporations play to deflect criminal responsibility. And he also demonstrates how the exchange of cooperation for prosecutorial leniency and amnesty belies true law enforcement. But none of these factors, according to Laufer, trumps the fact that there is no single constituency or interest group that strongly and consistently advocates the importance and priority of corporate criminal liability. In the absence of a new standard of corporate liability, the power of regulators to keep corporate abuses in check will remain insufficient.

A necessary corrective to our current climate of graft and greed, Corporate Bodies and Guilty Minds will be essential to policymakers and legal minds alike.

Inherit the Land: Jim Crow Meets Miss Maggie's Will by Gene Stowe
Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2006
F262.U5 S76 2006 Basement

In the early twentieth century, two wealthy white sisters, cousins to a North Carolina governor, wrote identical wills that left their substantial homeplace to a black man and his daughter.

Maggie Ross, whose sister Sallie died in 1909, was the richest woman in Union County, North Carolina. Upon Maggie's death in 1920, her will bequeathed her estate to Bob Ross--who had grown up in the sisters' household--and his daughter Mittie Bell Houston. Mittie had also grown up with the well-to-do women, who had shown their affection for her by building a house for her and her husband. This house, along with eight hundred acres, hundreds of dollars in cash, and two of the white family's three gold watches went to Bob Ross and Houston. As soon as the contents of the will became known, more than one hundred of Maggie Ross's scandalized cousins sued to break the will, claiming that its bequest to black people proved that Maggie Ross was mentally incompetent.

Revealing the details of this case and of the lives of the people involved in it, Gene Stowe presents a story that sheds light on and complicates our understanding of the Jim Crow South. Stowe's account of this famous court battle shows how specific individuals, both white and black, labored against the status quo of white superiority and ultimately won. An evocative portrait of an entire generation's sins, Inherit the Land: Jim Crow Meets Miss Maggie's Will hints at the possibility for color-blind justice in small-town North Carolina.

Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power by Joseph Margulies
New York : Simon & Schuster, c2006
KF5060 .M373 2006 Balcony

In his address to the nation on September 20, 2001, President Bush declared war on terrorism and set in motion a detention policy unlike any we have ever seen. Since then, the United States has seized thousands of people from around the globe, setting off a firestorm of controversy. Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power explores that policy and the intense debates that have followed.

Written by an expert on the subject, one of the lawyers who fought -- and won -- the right for prisoners to have judicial review, this important book will be of immense interest to liberals and conservatives alike. With shocking facts and firsthand accounts, Margulies takes readers deep into the Guantanamo Bay prison, into the interrogation rooms and secret cells where hundreds of men and boys have been designated "enemy combatants." Held without legal process, they have been consigned to live out their days in isolation until the Bush administration sees fit to release them -- if itever does. Margulies warns Americans to be especially concerned by the administration's assertion that the Presidentcan have unlimited and unchecked legal authority.

Tracing the arguments on both sides of the debate, this vitally important book paints a portrait of a country divided, on the brink of ethical collapse, where the loss of personal freedoms is under greater threat than ever before.

Disrobed: The New Battle Plan to Break the Left's Stranglehold on the Courts by Mark W. Smith
New York : Crown Forum, c2006
KF8748 .S537 2006 Balcony

With the Harriet Miers fiasco a distant memory and John Roberts and Samuel Alito sitting on the Supreme Court, conservatives can finally stop worrying about the courts, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong.

America's courts, legal culture, and law schools remain solidly in the Left's camp. Decades of liberal legal precedents fill volumes of law tomes. Absent a sweeping change--precisely what bestselling author Mark W. Smith calls for in Disrobed--liberals will ruthlessly exploit their dominant position in the law to continue advancing their radical agenda, as they have for the past seventy years.

Smith, a nationally recognized attorney, lays out an aggressive new battle plan to thwart the liberal assault on America by turning the courts into allies of the conservative movement. Be warned, Disrobed is not for the fainthearted. Smith implores conservatives: Toss out practically everything you think you know about courts, judges, and American law--because it's naive, anachronistic, and self-defeating.

Fearlessly challenging the conventional conservative wisdom, Disrobed reveals:

Why conservatives must immediately embrace--not decry--judicial activism
A bold new model for finding strong conservative judges--behold the "Judicial Reagan"
Why litmus tests, so often vilified, represent the only way to pick reliable conservative judges
How to get sitting judges to "evolve" (finally!) to the right
How the Right can sue more to advance the conservative agenda--on guns, taxes, immigration, the right to life, you name it
How conservatives can turn liberals' favorite court rulings against them
The hard truth that who wins in the courts often depends more on politics and ideology than on the rule of law

Smith reminds us that courts, judges, and lawyers need not be enemies of the Right, and can even serve as valuable allies in the war against liberalism. But as his groundbreaking book shows, conservatives must force this change by taking swift action. Disrobed issues a call to arms to all conservatives, revealing that the courts are far too important to be left to the devices of academics, lawyers, and politicians.

"Conservatives," Smith writes, "must accept--and adapt our strategies to--the reality of the modern law, even when the truth is uncomfortable. Otherwise the conservative political agenda and the American way of life will keep getting destroyed--legal case by legal case--in the courts."

The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office by Dave Lindorff and Barbara Olshansky
New York : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, 2006
KF5075 .L56 2006 Balcony

The war in Iraq . . .
No bid contracts awarded to Halliburton . . .
Hurricane Katrina . . .
The CIA leak investigation . . .

The story gets worse and worse. The evidence is glaring. George W. Bush's record as a president is abysmal.
And it's time to impeach him.
The Case for Impeachment lays out the reasons why in a straightforward, letter-of-the-law manner. Mixing the cold, hard facts with the lies and deceptions of this administration, The Case for Impeachment is a serious consideration of Bush's high crimes and misdemeanors while in office. This important and timely book will serve as a rallying cry for all those fed up with George W. Bush's abuses of power.

Anonymous Lawyer: A Novel by Jeremy Blachman
New York : Henry Holt, 2006
PS3602.L23 A56 2006 Basement

A wickedly funny debut novel about a high-powered lawyer whose shockingly candid blog about life inside his firm threatens to destroy him.

He's a hiring partner at one of the world's largest law firms. Brilliant yet ruthless, he has little patience for associates who leave the office before midnight or steal candy from the bowl on his secretary's desk. He hates holidays and paralegals. And he's just started a weblog to tell the world about what life is really like at the top of his profession.

Meet Anonymous Lawyer--corner office, granite desk, and a billable rate of $675 an hour. The summer is about to start, and he's got a new crop of law school interns who will soon sign away their lives for a six-figure salary at the firm. But he's also got a few problems that require his attention. There's The Jerk, his bitter rival at the firm, who is determined to do whatever it takes to beat him out for the chairman's job. There's Anonymous Wife, who is spending his money as fast as he can make it. And there's that secret blog he's writing, which is a perverse bit of fun until he gets an e-mail from someone inside the firm who knows he's its author.

Written in the form of a blog, Anonymous Lawyer is a spectacularly entertaining debut that rips away the bland facade of corporate law and offers a telling glimpse inside a frightening world. Hilarious and fiendishly clever, Jeremy Blachman's tale of a lawyer who lives a lie and posts the truth is sure to be one of the year's most talked-about novels.

Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil by Mark A. Graber
Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006
KF4545.S5 G73 2006 Balcony

An examination of what is entailed by pledging allegiance to a constitutional text and tradition saturated with concessions to evil. The Constitution of the United States was originally understood as an effort to mediate controversies between persons who disputed fundamental values, and did not offer a vision of good society. In order to form a 'more perfect union' with slaveholders, late eighteenth century citizens fashioned a constitution that plainly compelled some injustices and was silent or ambiguous on other questions of fundamental right. This constitutional relationship could survive only as long as a bisectional consensus was required to resolve all constitutional questions not settled in 1787. Dred Scott challenges persons committed to human freedom to determine whether antislavery northerners should have provided more accommodations for slavery than were constitutionally strictly necessary or risked the enormous destruction of life and property that preceded Lincoln's new birth of freedom.

The Evolution of the Trade Regime: Politics, Law and Economics of the GARR and the WTO by John H. Barton, Judith L. Goldstein, Timothy E. Josling, & Richard H. Steinberg
Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2006
HF1713 .E96 2006 Basement

The Evolution of the Trade Regime offers a comprehensive political-economic history of the development of the world's multilateral trade institutions, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and its successor, the World Trade Organization (WTO). While other books confine themselves to describing contemporary GATT/WTO legal rules or analyzing their economic logic, this is the first to explain the logic and development behind these rules.

The book begins by examining the institutions' rules, principles, practices, and norms from their genesis in the early postwar period to the present. It evaluates the extent to which changes in these institutional attributes have helped maintain or rebuild domestic constituencies for open markets.

The book considers these questions by looking at the political, legal, and economic foundations of the trade regime from many angles. The authors conclude that throughout most of GATT/WTO history, power politics fundamentally shaped the creation and evolution of the GATT/WTO system. Yet in recent years, many aspects of the trade regime have failed to keep pace with shifts in underlying material interests and ideas, and the challenges presented by expanding membership and preferential trade agreements.