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Books > Law > Laws of other jurisdictions & general law > Courts & procedure
This concise primer offers an introduction to U.S. law from a
comparative perspective, explaining not only the main features of
American law and legal culture, but also how and why it differs
from that of other countries. Gerrit De Geest initially focuses on
the core characteristics of American law, such as the predominance
of judge-made law, the significance of state law and the vital role
that juries play in the legal process. De Geest then moves on to
provide a succinct analysis of U.S. legal culture, before
summarizing the principal differences in law and legal cultures
around the world. Key features include: A thorough introduction to
the main elements of U.S. law for international students A concise,
accessible style illustrated with lively anecdotes and discussion
of relevant foundational cases Explanation of the historical and
cultural roots of law in the U.S. and other countries to provide
context for differences. Students beginning LLM programs in the
U.S., in particular international students, will find this primer
invaluable reading. It will also be of interest to pre-law and
comparative law students.
In Justice in Extreme Cases, Darryl Robinson argues that the
encounter between criminal law theory and international criminal
law (ICL) can be illuminating in two directions: criminal law
theory can challenge and improve ICL, and conversely, ICL's novel
puzzles can challenge and improve mainstream criminal law theory.
Robinson recommends a 'coherentist' method for discussions of
principles, justice and justification. Coherentism recognizes that
prevailing understandings are fallible, contingent human
constructs. This book will be a valuable resource to scholars and
jurists in ICL, as well as scholars of criminal law theory and
legal philosophy.
The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution at a level sufficiently
general to guide lawmaking while avoiding great detail. This
four-page document has guided the United States of America for more
than two centuries. The Supreme Court has parsed the document into
clauses, which plaintiffs and defendants invoke in cases or
controversies before the Court. Some, like the Interstate Commerce
Clause, are central to the survival of a government of multiple
sovereignties. The practice of observing case precedents allows
orderly development of the law and consistent direction to the
lower courts. The Court itself claimed the final power of judicial
review, despite efforts to the contrary by the executive and
legislative branches of the national government and the state
supreme courts. The Court then limited its own awesome power
through a series of self-imposed rules of justiciability. These
rules set the conditions under which the Court may exercise the
extraordinary final power of judicial review. Some of these
self-imposed limits are prudential, some logical, and some inviting
periodic revision. This book examines the detailed unfolding of
several Constitutional clauses and the rules of justiciability. For
each clause and each rule of justiciability, the book begins with
the brilliant foundations laid by Chief Justice John Marshall, then
to the anti-Federalist era, the Civil War, the dominance of laissez
faire and social Darwinism, the Great Depression redirection, the
civil rights era, and finally the often-hapless efforts of Chief
Justice Rehnquist.
While scholars have rightly focused on the importance of the
landmark opinions of the United States Supreme Court and its Chief
Justice, John Marshall, in the rise in influence of the Court in
the Early Republic, the crucial role of the circuit courts in the
development of a uniform system of federal law across the nation
has largely been ignored. This book highlights the contribution of
four Associate Justices (Washington, Livingston, Story and
Thompson) as presiding judges of their respective circuit courts
during the Marshall era, in order to establish that in those early
years federal law grew from the 'inferior courts' upwards rather
than down from the Supreme Court. It does so after a reading of
over 1800 mainly circuit opinions and over 2000 original letters,
which reveal the sources of law upon which the justices drew and
their efforts through correspondence to achieve consistency across
the circuits. The documents examined present insights into
momentous social, political and economic issues facing the Union
and demonstrate how these justices dealt with them on circuit.
Particular attention is paid to the different ways in which each
justice contributed to the shaping of United States law on circuit
and on the Court and in the case of Justices Livingston and
Thompson also during their time on the New York State Supreme
Court.
In recent decades, as women entered the US workforce in increasing
numbers, they faced the conundrum of how to maintain breastfeeding
and hold down full-time jobs. In 2010, the Lactation at Work Law
(an amendment to the US Fair Labor Standards Act) mandated
accommodations for lactating women. This book examines the federal
law and its state-level equivalent in Indiana, drawing on two waves
of interviews with human resource personnel, supervising managers,
and lactating workers. In many ways, this simple law - requiring
break time and privacy for pumping - is a success story. Through
advocacy by allies, education of managers, and employee initiative,
many organizations created compliant accommodations. This book
shows legal scholars how a successful civil rights law creates
effective change; helps labor activists and management personnel
understand how to approach new accommodations; and enables workers
to understand the possibilities for amelioration of workplace
problems through internal negotiations and legal reforms.
With contributions from some of the leading scholars in law and
economics, this comprehensive book summarizes the state of economic
research on litigation, procedure and evidence. Among the topics
covered are the settlement negotiations; discovery; the incentive
to sue; theories of legal evidence; evidentiary misconduct; and the
privilege against self incrimination. A valuable reference tool for
academics and post graduate students in law, business, and
economics. Anyone with a general interest how legal process does
and should work will also find much to interest them in this book.
'The second edition of Procedural Law and Economics is an expanded
and updated collection that highlights new developments and
reiterates older themes. The volume will be essential reading both
for economists who want an introduction to a core legal subject,
and for legal scholars seeking new insights into the such topics as
settlement, fee shifting, and class actions.
Research on comparative administrative law, in contrast to
comparative constitutional law, remains largely underdeveloped.
This book plugs that gap. It considers how a wide range of common
law systems have received and adapted English common law to the
needs of their own socio-political context. Readers will be given
complex insights into a wide range of common law systems of
administrative law, which they may not otherwise have access to
given how difficult it would be to research all of the systems
covered in the volume single-handedly. The book covers Scotland,
Ireland, the USA, Canada, Israel, South Africa, Kenya, Malaysia,
Singapore, Hong Kong SAR, India, Bangladesh, Australia and New
Zealand. Comparative public lawyers will have a much greater range
of common law models of administrative law - either to pursue
conversations about their own common law system or to sophisticate
their comparison of their system (civil law or otherwise) with
common law systems.
Criminal proceedings, it is often now said, ought to be conducted
with integrity. But what, exactly, does it mean for criminal
process to have, or to lack, 'integrity'? Is integrity in this
sense merely an aspirational normative ideal, with possibly diffuse
influence on conceptions of professional responsibility? Or is it
also a juridical concept with robust institutional purchase and
enforceable practical consequences in criminal litigation? The 16
new essays contained in this collection, written by prominent legal
scholars and criminologists from Australia, Hong Kong, the UK and
the USA, engage systematically with - and seek to generate further
debate about - the theoretical and practical significance of
'integrity' at all stages of the criminal process. Reflecting the
flexibility and scope of a putative 'integrity principle', the
essays range widely over many of the most hotly contested issues in
contemporary criminal justice theory, policy and practice,
including: the ethics of police investigations, charging practice
and discretionary enforcement; prosecutorial independence, policy
and operational decision-making; plea bargaining; the perils of
witness coaching and accomplice testimony; expert evidence;
doctrines of admissibility and abuse of process; lay participation
in criminal adjudication; the role of remorse in criminal trials;
the ethics of appellate judgment writing; innocence projects; and
state compensation for miscarriages of justice.
In EU consumer law, the rise of Article 47 of the EU Charter of
Fundamental Rights - which guarantees the right to an effective
remedy and a fair trial - over the past decade has coincided with a
wave of crisis-induced litigation. Courts were confronted with
large numbers of cases against overindebted consumers. This has
prompted many questions on the need for effective judicial
protection, for instance in mortgage enforcement and order for
payment procedures. This book provides a unique perspective on the
role of civil courts at the crossroads of EU fundamental rights,
consumer law and access to justice. It examines how the Court of
Justice of the European Union, as well as civil courts in Spain and
the Netherlands, refer to Article 47 in unfair terms cases, where
procedural obstacles and inequalities have become particularly
visible - especially in Spanish case law. The analysis reveals a
divergence between European and national practices and also shows
the potential of Article 47, which is often wrongly equated with
the principle of effectiveness, in consumer litigation. Effective
Judicial Protection in Consumer Litigation makes a vital
contribution to the debate on the functions of Article 47 and
fundamental rights reasoning in European private law adjudication
and is a must read for anyone interested in the application of
Article 47 in judicial decision-making.
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