"Elder Law Estate Planning" is a niche area of law which combines the features of elder law and estate planning that pertain most to the needs of the middle class. In 1991, AARP published a "Consumer Report on Probate" concluding that probate was a process to be avoided. That marked the end of traditional will planning and started the "living trust revolution." Since then, millions of people have set up trusts to: * Save time and money in settling the estate * Avoid legal guardianship if they become disabled * Avoid having their personal and financial matters made public * Reduce the chance of a "will contest" * Keep control in the family and out of the court system By 1990, the field of elder law also emerged to help people navigate the increased complexity of state Medicaid rules and regulations, the soaring costs of nursing home stays, and the fact that people were living considerably longer. Elder law and estate planning continue to grow independently of each other, sometimes to the detriment of clients. Estate planning lawyers are of little value when the estate plan to avoid probate fails to prevent a nursing home stay consuming all of the assets, because the lawyer is unfamiliar with elder law. On the other hand, elder law attorneys often protect assets but overlook basic estate planning issues such as saving taxes and keeping assets in the blood. The practice of Elder Law Estate Planning means: * Getting your assets to your heirs, in the best possible way, with least amount of taxes and legal fees * Keeping those assets in the blood for your grandchildren, and * Protecting your assets from the costs of long-term care and qualifying for government benefits available to pay for care. Middle class clients today need an "elder law estate planning attorney" to address their estate planning needs as well as to help with long-term care, disability and Medicaid issues as they arise.

Journal of the International Natural Law Society, New Series Volume 10, Numbers 1 & 2, Winter 2009

LEGAL POSITIVISM AND NATURAL LAW Three lectures by the Harvard Law School professor examine legal positivism and natural law. In the course of his analysis Fuller discusses Kelsen's theory as a reactionary theory and Hobbes' theory of sovereignty. He defines legal positivism as the viewpoint that draws a distinction "between the law that is and the law that ought to be" and interprets natural law as that which tolerates a combination of the two. He looks at the effects of positivism's continued influence on American legal thinking and concludes that law is necessary in a democracy as a principle of order. LON L. FULLER 1902-1978] was a professor at Harvard Law School and is remembered for his contributions to the law of contracts. His debate with H.L.A. Hart in the 1958 Harvard Law Review (Vol. 71) is noteworthy because it provided the framework for subsequent debates about legal positivism and natural law.

Law and Empire provides a comparative view of legal practices in Asia and Europe, from Antiquity to the eighteenth century. It relates the main principles of legal thinking in Chinese, Islamic, and European contexts to practices of lawmaking and adjudication. In particular, it shows how legal procedure and legal thinking could be used in strikingly different ways. Rulers could use law effectively as an instrument of domination; legal specialists built their identity, livelihood and social status on their knowledge of law; and non-elites exploited the range of legal fora available to them. This volume shows the relevance of legal pluralism and the social relevance of litigation for premodern power structures.

In 1940, on the eve of the United States entry into World War II, the late Fulton J. Sheen (1895-1979) published FREEDOM UNDER GOD. This new, annotated "Just Third Way Edition" of a neglected classic includes an in-depth foreword, as well as a bibliography and index not included in the original. While FREEDOM UNDER GOD addresses the loss of true freedom throughout the world, Sheen's special concern was freedom of religion. This is under increasing attack today. Individual life as well as marriage and the family are also in grave danger as the State continues to expand its power to fill the vacuum left by the growing powerlessness of ordinary people. Speaking to people of all faiths and philosophies, albeit from a "Catholic" perspective, then-Monsignor Sheen traced the rise of totalitarian State power in the first half of the 20th century to the fact that fewer and fewer people in America and throughout the world owned capital - what Sheen called "creative wealth." As Sheen argued, only widespread private property in capital has the capacity to restore the foundation of true freedom. The world needs the wisdom of Fulton Sheen now more than ever. The republication of FREEDOM UNDER GOD helps introduce the work of this pivotal thinker to a new generation of readers and students.

The case of State of Texas vs. Autumn Hills Nursing Homes, Inc. went to trial in a borrowed San Antonio courtroom 25 years ago. It matched a Texas dream team for the defense including Roy Minton, Tom Sartwelle, Mike Ramsey, and Roy Barrera Sr. against a determined (some would say obsessed) young assistant attorney general, David Marks, and his backup team from the state. The jury heard six months of horrifying testimony about catastrophic medical failure when corporate greed trumps medical care. Death Without Dignity is their story, told by a journalist who was allowed the exceedingly rare experience of being not only in the courtroom, but was allowed by the judge to be in chambers when lawyers wrangled out of earshot of the jury - something that had never been allowed any journalist before or since, according to the lead defense lawyer. The case remains today as the longest and most expensive criminal prosecution in Texas history and Death Without Dignity is now a courtroom classic.

Our brain is a fractal structure that can grow thanks to some genes that contain a code, a formula that generates this structure. The basis of evolutionary sociology is that our brain will prompt behavior that is to the benefit of the spreading of our genes. Although people are unaware of it, they generally behave in ways that optimize the reproduction of their genes. Because they need resources from their environment (in the broadest sense of the word), they will show behavior that is conducive to procuring or securing as many resources as possible. To accomplish this mis-sion, people, being social animals, work together. The older parts of our brain (older in an evolutionary sense) make cooperation possible by means of emotion. The younger parts make it possible to formulate rules that reflect these emotions. In other words, these rules derive from factual, biological mechanisms. People experience these rules as "normative," and as "ethical," but even so, these rules are products of evolution. We, that is our brains, formulate them because they help our genes to spread. This, in a nutshell, is the biological theory of law as described in this book. Although philosophers of law and even sociobiologists are reluctant to concur that norms can be justified by biological mechanisms, this is what it takes to make a major step forward in the integration of biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and law. This book is a legalist's implicit answer to the ideas of Charles Darwin, Richard Dawkins, Richard Alexander, James Q. Wilson, Daniel Dennet, Matt Ridley, Frans de Waal, and other sociobiologists. By introducing fractals and important aspects of law, it further enhances our insights in human behavior. Free riders by heart use law to improve their reproduction, and thus feel happy.

John Crowell Businessman, Tuscaloosa, Al Dr. Steele's book is an amazing perspective on how mediation and law collectively can help parties resolve simple and complex legal disputes. His book using the theory of facts, issues, options & solutions lends mediators the best of legal method to develop their mediation case theory in managing the dynamics of mediation cases that has clogged our judicial court system. Now the American people have a definite alternative to collaborate and resolve their legal case with the assistance of an impartial third party. This book also is excellent for everyday people in resolving common mutual issues that divide people rather than bring unity and community. Facts, Issues, Options & Solutions will have an indelible impact on civil discourse in America. Dr. Brenda Stanton Deener Nurse Practitioner, Memphis, Tenn This is an excellent book written by Dr. Steele. Mediation and is indeed a form of law that even common citizens can come to the table with the assistance of a mediator to facilitate and evaluate both parties facts and issues. The decisions that both of them make they can live with and at the end of the day resolve to an agreement that is worthy of their signatures and is enforceable in a court of law. This book heralds a mediation perspective that pre-mediation and early assessment of the legal issues, communications issues, the financial issues, and the psychosocial issues can collaboratively be resolved into a mediation settlement agreement with the same legal basis of a court trial because it's an agreement between two or more parties who made them with sound mind and body.

Articles on natural law theory and philosophy of law.

We live in a system explicitly designed to steal from every U.S. citizen every minute of every day Know Stealing dispels preconceived notions about the root causes of our nation's problems, replacing them with essential, clear and precise knowledge capable of driving restoration in our American Republic. Building upon fifteen years of research, this breakthrough expos provides the solutions that will enable us, as ordinary citizens, to reclaim individual Life, Liberty, Property, and Prosperity, all founded a policy of NO stealing. We can no longer afford the lies and deception that are eroding our national economy and our freedoms. Armed with knowledge and the tools necessary to restore our nation, together we can change the course of history. A few words which have been used to describe Know Stealing: Must-Read. Simple To Understand. Scholarly. #1 to Gift. Original Research. Methodically Corrects Dangerous Error. Disperses Complexity. Challenging. Concise and Astute Brilliance. Desperately Needed. Revolutionizes One's Worldview. Transformational.

For almost three-quarters of a century, the countries of Western Europe have abandoned national sovereignty as an ideal. Nation states are being dismantled: by supranationalism from above, by multiculturalism from below. This book explains why supranationalism and multiculturalism are in fact irreconcilable with representative government and the rule of law. It challenges one of the most central beliefs in contemporary legal and political philosophy, which is that borders are bound to disappear.

We live in a system explicitly designed to steal from every U.S. citizen every minute of every day Know Stealing dispels preconceived notions about the root causes of our nation's problems, replacing them with essential, clear and precise knowledge capable of driving restoration in our American Republic. Building upon fifteen years of research, this breakthrough expos provides the solutions that will enable us, as ordinary citizens, to reclaim individual Life, Liberty, Property, and Prosperity, all founded a policy of NO stealing. We can no longer afford the lies and deception that are eroding our national economy and our freedoms. Armed with knowledge and the tools necessary to restore our nation, together we can change the course of history. A few words which have been used to describe Know Stealing: Must-Read. Simple To Understand. Scholarly. #1 to Gift. Original Research. Methodically Corrects Dangerous Error. Disperses Complexity. Challenging. Concise and Astute Brilliance. Desperately Needed. Revolutionizes One's Worldview. Transformational.

Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), a.k.a., Hugo de Groot, laid the foundations for international law based on natural law with Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili. The 1625 De Jure Belli ac Pacis, also translated as On the Law of War and Peace, is considered to be a foundational work in international law.

Our nation and Constitution were based upon natural law which secured our unalienable rights, and what makes them unalienable is that they are God-given, derived from the nature and purpose of man. This is affirmed by the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men ... are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." This established our nation in a natural law tradition charted by hundreds of authors going back several thousand years, but it has been lost to modern man for about the last hundred.

If natural law is the foundation of our legal system, where is it? This book shows that our law was based on the presumption of liberty. Government could pass any law to protect the general welfare of society, but no law could go beyond what was necessary to remedy the perceived harm, tailored for minimal infringement upon personal liberties. Absent harm, there could be no legislation. This protected the rights of individuals and society, and made us a free country. One Court explained:

"The individual should be granted all the rights consistent with public safety secured] by an authorized resort to the courts for their protection against all hostile legislation which is not required by considerations of the public health or safety. In the absence of such considerations those rights are alike immutable; in their presence they must alike yield." State v. Gravett, 62 NE 325 (1901).

We lost our liberties when we lost our resort to the courts. In the 1930s the Supreme Court replaced the presumption of liberty with the presumption of constitutionality, making Congress the judge of the constitutionality of its own laws, beyond review by the courts, thereby removing the requirement of necessity, changing our form of government and destroying our liberty by allowing numerous unnecessary laws to become a pestilence upon society.

We have several remedies. This book enumerates many of our God-given natural rights retained by the people that cannot be infringed by government, that we can use to populate the Ninth Amendment. We can follow natural law by using Religious Free exercise, and 96 Stat. 1211. Finally, we can waive our statutory rights to the protection of government in order to exercise rights prohibited by government "protecting" us, such as the prohibition of raw milk and the curing of disease.

Scholars of natural law agree that laws must not be arbitrary or unreasonable, and they must be based upon "right reason" in accord with mans nature, otherwise they are not laws at all and we have a right and duty to disobey. Learn the art of disobedience, the recommended and lawful remedy to tyranny from our natural law tradition.

Title: An introduction to the principles of morals and legislation /Publisher: British Library, Historical Print EditionsThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is one of the world's largest research libraries holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats: books, journals, newspapers, sound recordings, patents, maps, stamps, prints and much more. Its collections include around 14 million books, along with substantial additional collections of manuscripts and historical items dating back as far as 300 BC.The GENERAL HISTORICAL collection includes books from the British Library digitised by Microsoft. This varied collection includes material that gives readers a 19th century view of the world. Topics include health, education, economics, agriculture, environment, technology, culture, politics, labour and industry, mining, penal policy, and social order. ++++The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library Bentham, Jeremy; 1823 2 v.: ill., port; 22 cm. 526.l.21.

Today the idea of natural law as the basic ingredient in moral, legal, and political thought presents a challenge not faced for almost two hundred years. On the surface, there would appear to be little room in the contemporary world for a widespread belief in natural law. The basic philosophies of the opposition-the rationalism of the philosophes, the utilitarianism of Bentham, the materialism of Marx-appear to have made prior philosophies irrelevant. Yet these newer philosophies themselves have been overtaken by disillusionment born of confl icts between "might" and "right." Many thoughtful people who were loyal to secular belief have become dissatisfi ed with the lack of normative principles and have turned once more to natural law. This fi rst book-length study of Edmund Burke and his philosophy, originally published in 1958, explores this intellectual giant's relationship to, and belief in, the natural law.

As the Baby Boomer generation ages and the sandwich generation is stressed between caring for children and caring for parents, questions are cropping up all across the nation: How can I protect the nest egg I've worked so hard to create? What happens to my assets if I die unexpectedly? Will I be able to afford long-term care?

In "Asset Protection Planning for Seniors," attorney Michael A. Babiarz shares numerous examples of the real-life problems that aging Americans face today.

This is not another confusing form book or technical manual. "Asset Protection Planning for Seniors" is a simple, helpful guide, filled with examples aimed at addressing the basic concerns of older Americans-you!

Stop worrying and start learning about: Nursing homes Medicaid planning Wills Trusts Probate Avoiding family problems Protecting inheritance Powers of attorney

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

The result of over twenty years of research The Spirit of the Laws encompasses a vast array of topics and issues. This groundbreaking work provides a comprehensive examination of some of the most important topics relating to liberty. These include constitutionalism, the separation of powers, the primacy of civil liberty and the rule of law, and the power of the local community in establishing political institut

There has existed the nave assumption that until the unsolicited advent of colonialism, the so-called "noble and savage" tribes had no legal system worthy of attention. The Igbo people were not exempted from this assumption. Justice itself cannot be realized outside a system of law and its institutions. It is a system in which law is a vital aspect of man's culture and social existence; embodying the collective will of the community and binding the members of that community in a unity of purpose. In all of these, the exercise of reason is essential and indispensable. In the face of the colonial and neo-colonial assumption of the non-existence of law, the evidence on the ground suggests something totally different. If anything, that evidence shows that the assumption was an essential part of the ideology of colonialism and an important psychological armour which, in conjunction with the Bible and gun-powder, helped to bring about the physical, political, economic, and mental domination of non-Europeans. In this book, an attempt is made to elucidate the logical features of some fundamental concepts and phrases related to justice, dispute settlement, and the organization of life and work in Igbo communities in Aniocha north local government area of Delta State.

The theory and praxis of biblical law in the historical and contemporary landscape of American law and culture is contentious and controversial. Richard Hiers provides a new consideration of the subject with an emphasis upon the underlying justice and compassion implicit within. Special consideration is given to matters of civil law, the death penalty, and due process. An analysis of various biblical trial scenes are also included. The book draws on, and in turn relates to three areas of scholarship and concern: biblical studies, social ethics, and jurisprudence (legal theory). Modern legal categories often illuminate the nature of biblical law: for instance, by distinguishing between inheritance and bequests or wills (a distinction not found in traditional biblical commentaries), and by identifying the meaning or function of biblical laws by using such categories as "contract" and "tort" law, "due process," "equal protection," and "social welfare legislation."Several discussions throughout the book compare or contrast biblical laws with modern Anglo-American law or social policies. Each chapter begins with two or three relevant quotations: one or two from biblical texts, and sometimes from one or two relevant latter-day sources, notably, Magna Carta, the United States Constitution, and writings by Ayn Rand, and Robert Bellah. Although modern law usually shows greater compassion, biblical law often combines concern for both justice and compassion in ways that sometime provide grounds for critiquing modern counterparts.>