Controversies in the Common Law


Book Description

Beverley McLachlin was the first woman to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Joining the Court while it was establishing its approach to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, McLachlin aided the court in weathering the public backlash against controversial decisions during her tenure. Controversies in the Common Law explores Chief Justice McLachlin’s approach to legal reasoning, examines her remarkable contributions in controversial areas of the common law, and highlights the role of judicial philosophy in shaping the law. Chapters in this book span thirty years, and deal with a variety of topics – including tort, unjust enrichment, administrative and criminal law. The contributors show that McLachlin had a philosophical streak that drove her to ensure unity and consistency in the common law, and to prefer incremental change over revolution. Celebrating the career of an influential jurist, Controversies in the Common Law demonstrates how the common law approach taken by Chief Justice McLachlin has been successful in managing criticism and ensuring the legitimacy of the Court.




Criminal Law


Book Description

In his student treatise, noted authority Paul Robinson uses the Model Penal Code, realistic hypotheticals, and lucid explanations to describe the existing rules of American criminal law. (In fact, professors consistantly remark on how well written and clear Robinson's text is.) He explains the reasoning behind those rules, The interrelation among them, and their application. Robinson gives the MPC's position on each topic, along with the most common deviations from it. Rather than viewing each rule in isolation, he examines each part of criminal law as a piece of a machine for determining criminal liability. The six parts of the book define those interrelationships: Introduction General Principles in the Definition of Offenses Principles of Imputation General Defenses Inchoate Liability Specific Offenses Since lawyers who know the reasoning of the drafters have a powerful advantage in arguing for a particular interpretation of a code provision, Robinson points students to important bibliographic sources at the end of each section. Each chapter starts with a hypothetical based on a real case. Throughout the chapter, Robinson refers back To The hypothetical, using it as a vehicle to analyze and clarify abstract concepts. Numerous footnotes, case references, and bibliographies make this text a lasting research tool. For a meaningful exploration of this fascinating area of study, you can depend on Paul Robinson's Criminal Law . Be sure to recommend this vital work to your next criminal law class.




Decision Making and Controversies in State Supreme Courts


Book Description

Foregrounding religious, racialized and gendered disputes, Decision Making and Controversies in State Supreme Courts examines state supreme court decision making during controversies. Using case studies within Alabama, Louisiana, and Wisconsin, Salmon Shomade identifies and analyses the predominant factors influencing decision making in times of court contention. In this book, Shomade assesses how the justices’ interpersonal dynamics and controversial issues of religion, race, and gender impact their decision making. Specifically, the book focuses on former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and the Ten Commandments monument crisis, Louisiana Chief Justice Bernette Johnson and her elevation dispute, and former Wisconsin Justice David Prosser and his conflicts with two female colleagues. The book contributes to the literature on decision making in state appellate courts by building upon established models utilized for assessing these courts.




Cases Without Controversies


Book Description

This book offers a new account of the power of federal courts in the United States to hear and determine uncontested applications to assert or register a claim of right. Familiar to lawyers in civil law countries as forms of voluntary or non-contentious jurisdiction, these uncontested applications fit uneasily with the commitment to adversary legalism in the United States. Indeed, modern accounts of federal judicial power often urge that the language of the Article III of the U.S. Constitution limits federal courts to the adjudication of concrete disputes between adverse parties, thereby ruling out all forms of non-contentious jurisdiction. Said to rest on the so-called "case-or-controversy" requirement of Article III, this requirement of party contestation threatens the power of federal courts to conduct a range of familiar proceedings, such as the oversight of bankruptcy proceedings, the issuance of warrants, and the adjudication of applications for mandamus and habeas corpus relief. By recounting the tradition of naturalization and other uncontested litigation in antebellum America and coupling that tradition with an account of the important difference between cases and controversies, this book challenges the prevailing understanding of Article III. In addition to defending the power of federal courts to hear uncontested matters of federal law, the book examines the way the Constitution's meaning has changed over time and suggests a constructive interpretive methodology that would allow the Supreme Court to take account of the old and the new in defining the contours of federal judicial power.




Criminal Law


Book Description

Students today expect learning to be both efficient and interesting. They use online materials and study aids to supplement class-assigned materials and to "hack" the law. This textbook cuts out the middle person by integrating challenging principal cases that are aggressively edited into an engaging overview of the black letter law. The explanatory sections describe the law through lively language and colorful examples that students can readily grasp and remember. Providing students with a clear doctrinal overview permits the selection of cases that drill down deeper into fundamental or cutting-edge issues. Many of the principal cases put the old wine of the criminal law into new bottles that students will find meaningful and interesting. In addition to homicide, rape, assault, traditional property crimes and drug offenses, the cases selected include environmental and white collar crime, obstruction of justice, criminal copyright infringement, hate crimes, sex trafficking, online threats, revenge porn and computer crimes. Short discussion questions follow each case that stimulate understanding of the holding and the deeper issues at stake. Additional materials raise important critical perspectives dealing with issues of race, class and gender. Practice problems and links to online video clips allow students to apply what they are learning, and the appendix contains numerous materials for engaging lawyering exercises.




Liberty against the Law


Book Description

In this, the last book published during his lifetime, renowned historian of the English Revolution Christopher Hill uses the literary culture of the seventeenth century to explore the immense social changes of the period as well as the expressions of liberty, the law and the hero-worship of the outlaw defiance. As well as chapters on gypsies and vagabonds, Hill analyzes class, religion and the shift away from the importance of the church after the Reformation. Liberty against the Law is a late classic of Hill's work and essential reading for anyone interested in the history and politics of the seventeenth-century.




Commercial Remedies: Resolving Controversies


Book Description

The law of commercial remedies raises a number of important doctrinal, theoretical and practical controversies which deserve sustained and rigorous examination. This volume explores such controversies and suggests solutions, which is essential to ensure that the law is defensible, clear and just. With contributions from twenty-three leading academic and practitioner experts, this book addresses significant issues in the law which, taken together, range across the entire remedial jurisdiction as it applies to commercial disputes. The book primarily focuses on the resolution of controversies in the English law of commercial remedies, but recent developments elsewhere are also considered, especially in other common law jurisdictions. The result provides remarkably comprehensive coverage of the field which will be of relevance to academics, students, judges and practitioners.







Judging Statutes


Book Description

In an ideal world, the laws of Congress--known as federal statutes--would always be clearly worded and easily understood by the judges tasked with interpreting them. But many laws feature ambiguous or even contradictory wording. How, then, should judges divine their meaning? Should they stick only to the text? To what degree, if any, should they consult aids beyond the statutes themselves? Are the purposes of lawmakers in writing law relevant? Some judges, such as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, believe courts should look to the language of the statute and virtually nothing else. Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit respectfully disagrees. In Judging Statutes, Katzmann, who is a trained political scientist as well as a judge, argues that our constitutional system charges Congress with enacting laws; therefore, how Congress makes its purposes known through both the laws themselves and reliable accompanying materials should be respected. He looks at how the American government works, including how laws come to be and how various agencies construe legislation. He then explains the judicial process of interpreting and applying these laws through the demonstration of two interpretative approaches, purposivism (focusing on the purpose of a law) and textualism (focusing solely on the text of the written law). Katzmann draws from his experience to show how this process plays out in the real world, and concludes with some suggestions to promote understanding between the courts and Congress. When courts interpret the laws of Congress, they should be mindful of how Congress actually functions, how lawmakers signal the meaning of statutes, and what those legislators expect of courts construing their laws. The legislative record behind a law is in truth part of its foundation, and therefore merits consideration.




The Formation of English Common Law


Book Description

During the Anglo-Norman period a concept of law developed, binding ruler and ruled alike and which was based on custom common throughout the country. This was Common Law and it was from this that subsequent law developed. John Hudson's text is an introductory survey of Common Law for students and other non-specialist readers. Certain aspects of medieval law such as its feuds, its ordeals and its outlaws are well known, this text shows how these aspects fitted in to the system as a whole, considers its Anglo-Saxon origins, the influence of the Norman invaders and later administrative reforms. The events and legal processes also throw light on the society, politics and thought of the times.




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