Book Description

Now in a readily available republication edition (in library-quality hardcover format), and adding a substantive, detailed 2016 Foreword by Lee Epstein and Jack Knight, this classic of law and political science is presented to a new generation of thoughtful observers of the U.S. Supreme Court and how its justices create judicial decisions. As Epstein and Knight write, this book is "extraordinary. It's the rarest of rare: a breakthrough of the path-marking, even paradigm-shifting, variety...." Its initial publication offered a "huge conceptual breakthrough. ELEMENTS was the first to offer a strategic account" of judging, and its "framework forever changed the study of judicial behavior." It remains influential to current thought, extending even in its "global reach," and is an important part of modern social sciences and law. /-/ First outlining the sources and instruments - and limitations - of judicial power, the author then shows how policy-oriented justices might take advantage of their power positions to maximize their impact on the formation and execution of public policy. In this book Walter F. Murphy attempts to understand how, under the limitations which the American legal and political systems impose, Supreme Court justices can legitimately act to further their policy objectives. Murphy also considers ethical issues raised by the model of judicial decision-making he describes. Throughout, systematic analysis is supported by prodigious research and fascinating real-world examples over the years and in very different judicial administrations. /-/ Part of the Legal Legends Series from Quid Pro Books, this republication edition uses modern presentation and yet embeds the page numbers of the original print editions, for purposes of continuity, referencing, course assignment, and convenience to the reader. It is also available in quality eBook formats and a new paperback edition. NOTE: only the new editions from Quid Pro Books contain the new formatting and additional introduction, even if this description appears under used copies of older printings. /-/ About the Author: Walter F. Murphy taught constitutional law to generations of students at Princeton, where he held the chair of McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence first occupied by Woodrow Wilson. Born in Charleston, S.C., Murphy served as a Marine in Korea with a Distinguished Service Cross and a Purple Heart. He graduated from Notre Dame and George Washington University, and earned a PhD in political science from the University of Chicago. His novels include the New York Times bestseller The Vicar of Christ, which won the Chicago Foundation for Literature Award and was preceded by his unprecedented research in Vatican archives and access to church and papal sources. His other acclaimed nonfiction works include Congress and the Court and Constitutional Democracy.