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Find Info Like a Pro

August 8th, 2011 No comments

findinfoCarole A Levitt & Mark E Rosch. Find Info Like a Pro. Chicago, ABA Law Practice Management Section, 2010. KF242.A1 L4785 2010

From the publisher: This complete hands-on guide shares the secrets, shortcuts, and realities of conducting investigative and background research using the sources of publicly available information available on the Internet. Written for legal professionals, this comprehensive desk book lists, categorizes, and describes hundreds of free and fee-based Internet sites. The resources and techniques in this book are useful for investigations; depositions; locating missing witnesses, clients, or heirs; and trial preparation, among other research challenges facing legal professionals. In addition, a CD-ROM is included, which features clickable links to all of the sites contained in the book.

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Learned Hand

April 25th, 2011 No comments

learnedGerald Gunther. Learned Hand: The Man and the Judge. Oxford University Press, 2011. KF373.H29 G76 2011

From the publisher:  In Learned Hand: The Man and the Judge, Gerald Gunther provides a complete and intimate account of the professional and personal life of Learned Hand. He conveys the substance and range of Hand’s judicial and intellectual contributions with eloquence and grace. This second edition features photos of Learned Hand throughout his life and career, and includes a foreword by Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Gunther, a former law clerk for Hand, reviewed much of Hand’s published work, opinions, and correspondence. He meticulously describes Hand’s cases, and discusses the judge’s professional and personal life as interconnected with the political and social circumstances of the times in which he lived.

Born in 1872, Hand served on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He clearly crafted and delivered thousands of decisions in a wide range of cases through extensive, conscientious investigation and analysis, while at the same time exercising wisdom and personal detachment. His opinions are still widely quoted today, and will remain as an everlasting tribute to his life and legacy.

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Fugitive Justice

April 18th, 2011 No comments

fugitiveSteven Lubet. Fugitive Justice: Runaways, Rescuers, and Slavery on Trial. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010. KF221.P6 L83 2010

From the publisher: During the tumultuous decade before the Civil War, no issue was more divisive than the pursuit and return of fugitive slaves—a practice enforced under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. When free Blacks and their abolitionist allies intervened, prosecutions and trials inevitably followed. These cases involved high legal, political, and—most of all—human drama, with runaways desperate for freedom, their defenders seeking recourse to a “higher law” and normally fair-minded judges (even some opposed to slavery) considering the disposition of human beings as property.

Fugitive Justice tells the stories of three of the most dramatic fugitive slave trials of the 1850s, bringing to vivid life the determination of the fugitives, the radical tactics of their rescuers, the brutal doggedness of the slavehunters, and the tortuous response of the federal courts. These cases underscore the crucial role that runaway slaves played in building the tensions that led to the Civil War, and they show us how “civil disobedience” developed as a legal defense. As they unfold we can also see how such trials—whether of rescuers or of the slaves themselves—helped build the northern anti-slavery movement, even as they pushed southern firebrands closer to secession.

How could something so evil be treated so routinely by just men? The answer says much about how deeply the institution of slavery had penetrated American life even in free states. Fugitive Justice powerfully illuminates this painful episode in American history, and its role in the nation’s inexorable march to war.

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The Promises of Liberty

April 11th, 2011 No comments

promisesAlexander Tsesis. The Promises of Liberty: The History and Contemporary Relevance of the Thirteenth Amendment. Columbia University Press, 2010. KF4545.S5 P76 2010.

From the publisher: In these original essays, America’s leading historians and legal scholars reassess the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment and its relevance to issues of liberty, justice, and equality. The Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States, reasserting the radical, egalitarian dimensions of the Constitution. It also laid the foundations for future civil rights and social justice legislation. Yet subsequent reinterpretation and misappropriation have curbed more substantive change. With constitutional jurisprudence undergoing a revival, The Promises of Liberty provides a full portrait of the Thirteenth Amendment and its potential for ensuring liberty.

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Forensic Science in Court

April 4th, 2011 No comments

forensicDonald E Shelton. Forensic Science in Court: Challenges in the Twenty-First Century. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011. KF9674 .S54 2011.

From the publisher: Forensic Science in Court explores the legal implications of forensic science–an increasingly important and complex part of the justice system. Judge Donald Shelton provides an accessible overview of the legal issues, from the history of evidence in court, to ‘gatekeeper’ judges determining what evidence can be allowed, to the ‘CSI effect’ in juries. The book describes and evaluates various kinds of evidence, including DNA, fingerprints, handwriting, hair, bite marks, tool marks, firearms and bullets, fire and arson investigation, and bloodstain evidence. Assessing the strengths and limitations of each kind of evidence, the author also discusses how they can contribute to identifying the ‘who,’ ‘how,’ and ‘whether’ questions that arise in criminal prosecutions. Author Donald Shelton draws on the depth of his experiences as courtroom prosecutor, professor, and judge, to provide a well-rounded look at these increasingly critical issues. Case studies throughout help bring the issues to life and show how forensic science has been used, both successfully and not, in real-world situations.

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Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment

March 28th, 2011 No comments

religionJohn Witte & Joel A Nichols. Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment. Westview Press, 2011. KF4783.Z9 W58 2011.

From the publisher: This updated edition of Religion and the American Constitutional Experiment provides a comprehensive, multidisciplinary overview of the history, theory, law, and comparative analysis of American religious liberty from the earliest colonial period through the most recent Supreme Court cases. In accessible, jargon-free language, the authors present balanced discussions of controversial issues, including the funding of religious schools and charities and displaying religious symbols on government property. Three chapters new to this edition cover the free exercise of religion, religion and public life, and religious organizations and the law. In addition, the authors address seven new cases, and an expanded concluding chapter places the American experience in a global context by comparing contemporary American religious liberty law with international human rights standards.

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Scholarly Writing for Law Students

March 21st, 2011 No comments

scholarlyElizabeth Fajans & Mary R Falk. Scholarly Writing for Law Students: Seminar Papers, Law Review Notes and Law Review Competition Papers. West, 2011. KF250 .F35 2011

From the publisher: This book teaches law students how to write scholarly papers for seminars, law reviews, and law review competitions. It helps novices and even more-experienced scholars to write papers with a minimum of anxiety. Employing a process theory of writing, the text first describes the enterprise of scholarly writing and then discusses techniques for brainstorming, researching, drafting, and revising for substance and style. There are also chapters on footnote practice, plagiarism, law review editing, and publication. Appendixes provide a sample law review competition paper, answers to in-text exercises, and sample syllabi for scholarly writing courses.

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Reconsidering Law and Policy Debates

March 14th, 2011 No comments

reconsidering

John G. Culhane, ed. Reconsidering Law and Policy Debates: A Public Health Perspective. Cambridge University Press, 2011. KF3775 .R388 2010

From the publisher: This book offers fresh approaches to a variety of social and political issues that have become highly polarized and resistant to compromise by examining them through a population-based public health perspective. The topics included are some of the most contentious: abortion and reproductive rights; end-of-life issues, including the right to die and the treatment of pain; the connection between racism and poor health outcomes for African-Americans; the right of same-sex couples to marry; the toll of gun violence and how to reduce it; domestic violence and how the criminal justice model fails to deal with it effectively; and how tort compensation and punitive damages can further public health goals. People at every point along the political spectrum will find the book enlightening and informative. Written by eight authors, all of whom have cross-disciplinary expertise, this book shifts the focus away from the point of view of rights, politics, or morality and examines the effect of laws and policies from the perspective of public health and welfare.

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Is Eating People Wrong?

March 7th, 2011 No comments

eatingAllan C. Hutchinson. Is Eating People Wrong? Great Legal Cases and How They Shaped the World. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011. K370 .H88 2011

From the publisher: Great cases are those judicial decisions around which the common law develops. This book explores eight exemplary cases from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia that show the law as a living, breathing, and down-the-street experience. It explores the social circumstances in which the cases arose and the ordinary people whose stories influenced and shaped the law as well as the characters and institutions (lawyers, judges, and courts) that did much of the heavy lifting. By examining the consequences and fallout of these decisions, the book depicts the common law as an experimental, dynamic, messy, productive, tantalizing, and bottom-up process, thereby revealing the diverse and uncoordinated attempts by the courts to adapt the law to changing conditions and shifting demands. Great cases are one way to glimpse the workings of the common law as an untidy, but stimulating exercise in human judgment and social accomplishment.

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Academic Legal Writing

February 28th, 2011 No comments

academic legal writingEugene Volokh. Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, Seminar Papers, and Getting on Law Review. New York, N.Y., Foundation Press, 2010. KF250 .V64 2010.

From the publisher: Designed to help law students write and publish articles, this text provides detailed instructions for every aspect of the law school writing, research, and publication process. Topics covered include law review articles and student notes, seminar term papers, how to shift from research to writing, citation-checking others’ work, publishing, and publicizing written works. This edition adds examples drawn from successful student notes, coupled with detailed explanations of what makes the examples effective and how they could have been made still more effective. It also elaborates on how one can research a topic more comprehensively than is usually done.

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From the Closet to the Courtroom

February 21st, 2011 No comments

from the closet to the courtroomCarlos A. Ball. From the Closet to the Courtroom: Five LGBT Rights Lawsuits That Have Changed Our Nation. Boston, Beacon Press, 2010. KF4754.5.A53 B35 2010

From the publisher: The advancement of LGBT rights has occurred through struggles large and small-on the streets, around kitchen tables, and on the Web. Lawsuits have also played a vital role in propelling the movement forward, and behind every case is a human story: a landlord in New York seeks to evict a gay man from his home after his partner of ten years dies of AIDS; school officials in Wisconsin look the other way as a gay teenager is repeatedly and viciously harassed by other students; a lesbian couple appears unexpectedly at a clerk’s office in Hawaii seeking a marriage license.

Engaging and largely untold, From the Closet to the Courtroom explores how five pivotal lawsuits have altered LGBT history. Beginning each case narrative at the center-with the litigants and their lawyers-law professor Carlos Ball follows the stories behind each crucial lawsuit. He traces the parties from their communities to the courtroom, while deftly weaving in rich sociohistorical context and analyzing the lasting legal and political impact of each judicial outcome.

Over the last twenty years, no group of attorneys has helped to transform this country more than LGBT rights lawyers, and surprisingly, their collective accomplishments have received relatively little attention. Ball remedies that by exploring how a band of largely unheralded civil rights lawyers have attained remarkable legal victories through skill, creativity, and perseverance.

In this richly layered and multifaceted account, Ball vividly documents how these judicial victories have significantly altered LGBT lives today in ways that were unimaginable only a generation ago.

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Immortality and the Law

February 14th, 2011 No comments

immortalityRay D. Madoff. Immortality and the Law: The Rising Power of the American Dead. New Haven, Yale University Press, 2010. KF750 .M328 2010

From the publisher: This book takes a riveting look at how the law responds to that distinctly American dream of immortality. While American law provides virtually no protections for the interests we hold most dear—our bodies and our reputations—when it comes to property interests, the American dead have greater control than anywhere else in the world. Moreover, these rights are growing daily. From grave robbery to Elvis impersonators, Madoff shows how the law of the dead has a direct impact on how we live. Madoff examines how the rising power of the American dead enables the deceased to exert control over their wealth forever through grandiose schemes like “dynasty trusts” and perpetual private charitable foundations and to control their creative works and identities well into the unforeseeable future. Madoff explores how the law of the dead can, in essence, extend the reach of life by granting virtual immortality to individuals. All of this comes, Madoff contends, at real costs imposed on the living.

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The Eyes of Willie Mcgee

February 7th, 2011 No comments

542426109_140The Eyes of Willie Mcgee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South. New York, Harper, 2010. HV8699.U6 M744 2010.

From the publisher: In 1945, Willie McGee, a young African-American man from Laurel, Mississippi, was sentenced to death for allegedly raping Willette Hawkins, a white housewife. At first, McGee’s case was barely noticed, covered only in hostile Mississippi newspapers and far-left publications such as the Daily Worker. Then Bella Abzug, a young New York labor lawyer, was hired by the Civil Rights Congress—an aggressive civil rights organization with ties to the Communist Party of the United States—to oversee McGee’s defense. Together with William Patterson, the son of a slave and a devout believer in the need for revolutionary change, Abzug and a group of white Mississippi lawyers risked their lives to plead McGee’s case. After years of court battles, McGee’s supporters flooded President Harry S. Truman and the U.S. Supreme Court with clemency pleas, and famous Americans—including William Faulkner, Albert Einstein, Jessica Mitford, Paul Robeson, Norman Mailer, and Josephine Baker—spoke out on McGee’s behalf.

By the time the case ended in 1951 with McGee’s public execution in Mississippi’s infamous traveling electric chair, “Free Willie McGee” had become a rallying cry among civil rights activists, progressives, leftists, and Communist Party members. Their movement had succeeded in convincing millions of people worldwide that McGee had been framed and that the real story involved a consensual love affair between him and Mrs. Hawkins—one that she had instigated and controlled. As Heard discovered, this controversial theory is a doorway to a tangle of secrets that spawned a legacy of confusion, misinformation, and pain that still resonates today. The mysteries surrounding McGee’s case live on in this provocative tale of justice in the Deep South.

Based on exhaustive documentary research—court transcripts, newspaper reports, archived papers, letters, FBI documents, and the recollections of family members on both sides—Mississippi native Alex Heard tells a moving and unforgettable story that evokes the bitter conflicts between black and white, North and South, in America.

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The Right to Earn a Living

January 31st, 2011 No comments

518779050_140Timothy Sandefur. The Right to Earn a Living: Economic Freedom and the Law. Washington, D.C., Cato Institute, 2010. KF4753 .S26 2010

From the publisher: For many people, owning a business is the very definition of the American dream. But in today’s America, attaining such a dream is made increasingly difficult by laws and regulations that interfere with entrepreneurs and their right to earn a living. Author Timothy Sandefur has had a part in defending many hardworking American citizens against the unfair and often ludicrous restrictions imposed on them by government. These rules and regulations allow politicians and lobbyists to play favorites, rewrite contracts, file frivolous lawsuits, seize private property, and manipulate private choices.

This book charts the history of the fundamental human right of economic liberty—a right that the Founding Fathers considered to be a fundamental part of “the pursuit of happiness.” In fact, that right was protected by English judges for more than 150 years before U.S. independence, and American courts continued this vigilance during the country’s early years and through the Civil War Amendments that expanded protection to all Americans, regardless of race. The book then charts the changes that occurred when Progressive-era judges began to tear away those protections and concludes with an account of current controversies involving abusive licensing laws, freedom of speech in advertising, rules that override private property rights without just compensation, and more.

The Right to Earn a Living explains how Americans can restore the Constitution’s long-neglected protections for the right that Supreme Court Justice William Douglas once called “the most precious liberty that man possesses.”

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John Paul Stevens

January 26th, 2011 No comments

241174219_140Bill Barnhart, Eugene F Schlickman. John Paul Stevens: An Independent Life. DeKalb, Ill.,: Northern Illinois University Press, 2010. KF8745.S78 B37 2010.

From the publisher: During Justice Sonya Sotomayor’s recent confirmation hearings, the idea of “biography” played a high-profile role in the debate. How much does a person’s experience affect his or her judicial opinions? Should personal history be a key consideration when determining qualifications to sit on the highest court in the land? In this impeccably researched book, journalist Bill Barnhart and retired lawyer and former legislator Gene Schlickman paint a detailed portrait of Justice John Paul Stevens’s remarkable life and tenure on the Court. Through vivid family history and a careful look at his work on the bench, Barnhart and Schlickman offer the first biography of the second longest serving Supreme Court justice of the modern era—one who has proudly earned the title of the Court’s most prolific dissenter.

To provide a nuanced and multifaceted look at the justice, Barnhart and Schlickman interviewed Stevens and an extraordinary number of Stevens’s friends and family members, former clerks, current colleagues, politicians, and court watchers. They spoke with such public figures as former President Ford, former Ford chief of staff Donald Rumsfeld, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Interviews with Stevens’s children and one of his brothers provide personal insights into the man behind the robe. Tales of his childhood, of growing up in an affluent family in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, and of the family business, including The Stevens Hotel (now the Chicago Hilton and Towers), create a rich portrait of the independent man and judge. Intimate anecdotes from Stevens’s former law clerks reveal the lighter side of some of the most serious work in the country.

Barnhart and Schlickman also give careful consideration to Stevens’s career. They trace his early years as a Chicago lawyer, his appointment to the federal appeals bench in Chicago, and his ultimate nomination to the Supreme Court by Republican President Ford. They examine his best-known opinions, including his emotional dissents in Texas v. Johnson and Bush v. Gore. They trace his growth as a molder of Court decisions. In an era of an increasingly politicized judiciary, the story of Stevens’s life, as a lawyer who joined the bench with no political or ideological baggage, is an urgent reminder of the importance of judicial impartiality and the need to cultivate it. This vibrant biography will be of interest to those fascinated by the inner workings of the Supreme Court as well as those who simply want to learn more about one of Chicago’s favorite sons.