When appointed to the Supreme Court in 1970 by President Nixon, Harry A. Blackmun was seen as a quiet, safe choice to complement the increasingly conservative Court of his boyhood friend, Warren Burger. No one anticipated his seminal opinion championing abortion rights in Roe v. Wade, the most controversial ruling of his generation, which became the battle cry of both supporters and critics of judicial power and made Blackmun a liberal icon.
Harry A. Blackmun: The Outsider Justice is Tinsley E. Yarbrough's penetrating account of one of the most outspoken and complicated figures on the Supreme Court. As a justice, Blackmun stood at the pinnacle of the American judiciary. Yet when he took his seat on the Court, Justice Blackmun felt "almost desperate," overwhelmed with feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy over the immense responsibilities before him. Blackmun had overcome humble roots to achieve a Harvard education, success as a Minneapolis lawyer and resident counsel to the prestigious Mayo Clinic, as well as a distinguished record on the Eighth Circuit federal appeals court. But growing up in a financially unstable home with a frequently unemployed father and an emotionally fragile mother left a permanent mark on the future justice. All his life, Harry Blackmun considered himself one of society's outsiders, someone who did not "belong."
Remarkably, though, that very self-image instilled in the justice, throughout his career, a deep empathy for society's most vulnerable outsiders--women faced with unwanted pregnancies, homosexuals subjected to archaic laws, and ultimately, death-row inmates. To those who saw his career as the constitutional odyssey of a conservative juristgradually transformed into a champion of the underdog, Blackmun had a ready answer: he had not changed; the Court and the issues before them changed. The justice's identification with the marginalized members of society arguably provides the overarching key to that consistency.
Thoroughly researched, engagingly written, Harry A. Blackmun: The Outsider Justice offers an in-depth, revelatory portrait of one of the most intriguing jurists ever to sit on the Supreme Court. Relying on in-depth archival material, in addition to numerous interviews with Blackmun's former clerks, Yarbrough here presents the definitive biography of the great justice, ultimately providing an illuminating window into the inner-workings of the modern Supreme Court.

This book explores how forensic psychology has come to inhabit a central unifying discursive presence in the life world of modern carceral institutions. Providing a sociological and qualitative account of forensic practitioner psychologists, the author looks both in, and alongside, the work of such practitioners to explore how they simultaneously occupy positions of power and vulnerability. Focusing not only on how practitioners themselves come to embody a pervasive system of disciplinary expertise, but also on how they experience other forms of penal control, the book offers a novel and complete exploration of forensic psychology, the modern prison, and power. This is an accessible text for prison practitioners, criminological and sociological researchers and forensic psychologists on the nature and reality of forensic psychological practice in the contemporary prisons of England and Wales.

Nations around the world are facing various crises of ineffective government. Basic governmental functions-protecting rights, preventing violence, and promoting material well-being-are compromised, leading to declines in general welfare, in the enjoyment of rights, and even in democracy itself. This innovative collection, featuring analyses by leaders in the fields of constitutional law and politics, highlights the essential role of effective government in sustaining democratic constitutionalism. The book explores "effective government" as a right, principle, duty, and interest, situating questions of governance in debates about negative and positive constitutionalism. In addition to providing new conceptual approaches to the connections between rights and governance, the volume also provides novel insights into government institutions, including courts, legislatures, executives, and administrative bodies, as well as the media and political parties. This is an essential volume for anyone interested in constitutionalism, comparative law, governance, democracy, the rule of law, and rights.

This book reinvigorates the field of socio-legal inquiry examining the relationship between law and demography. Originally conceived as 'population law' in the 1960s following a growth in population and a use of law to temper population growth, this book takes a new approach by examining how population change can affect the legal system, rather than the converse. It analyses the impact of demographic change on the judicial system, with a geographic focus on Australian courts but with global insights and it raises questions about institutional structures. Through four case studies, it examines how demographic change impacts on the judicial system and how should the judicial system adapt to embody a greater preparedness for the demographic changes that lie ahead? It makes recommendations for reform and speaks to applied demographers, socio-legal scholars, and those interested in judicial institutions.

Claims assigned to the small claims track of the county court are up to GBP10,000 in value. This book provides clear guidance about all the relevant procedures and rules, some of which are unique to the track. They include the rules which limit costs recovery, procedures on appeals and the small claims mediation service provided through the Court. It meets all the needs of the professional user, including case citations and statutory references, but is written and presented with the non- lawyer in mind: it has a wealth of practical advice, plus simple summaries, flow charts, check lists and tables to enable litigants in person to understand the court process. It includes a glossary which explains over 100 legal words, terms and phrases. The book was first published over 20 years ago, and this is the 7th edition. It has been fully updated with an entire chapter devoted to the Road Traffic Act Small Claims Protocol and associated rule changes, under which many personal injury cases worth up to GBP5,000 in value will be allocated to the small claims track. This popular title will prove invaluable for busy practitioners and litigants in person alike, equipping them with the latest knowledge and enabling them to make the most of the procedures that are available.

The US Supreme Court is the chief institution responsible for guarding minority rights and equality under the law, yet, in order to function authoritatively, the Court depends on a majority of Americans to accept its legitimacy and on policymakers to enforce its rulings. The Rights Paradox confronts this tension, offering a careful conceptualization and theory of judicial legitimacy that emphasizes its connection to social groups. Zilis demonstrates that attitudes toward minorities and other groups are pivotal for shaping popular support for the Court, with the Court losing support when it rules in favor of unpopular groups. Moreover, justices are aware of these dynamics and strategically moderate their decisions when concerned about the Court's legitimacy. Drawing on survey and experimental evidence, as well as analysis of Court decision-making across many recent high-profile cases, Zilis examines the implications for 'equal justice under the law' in an era of heightened polarization and conflict.

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.

This is the first book that focusses on how proportionality analysis - a legal transplant from the West - is applied by courts around Asia, and it explores how a country's commitment to democracy and the rule of law is fundamental to the success of the doctrine's judicial enforcement. This book will appeal to lawyers, political scientists, and students of law and political science who seek to understand how proportionality analysis is blossoming and, in some cases, flourishing in Asia.

This book empirically explores whether and under what conditions the judicial process is efficient. Three specific issues are addressed: first, disputants self-select into litigation. Do they tend to bring cases with merit? Second, filed cases differ in their social import. Do courts select more important cases to devote more resource to? Third, courts establish precedents, affect resource allocation in the cases at hand, and influence future behaviours of transacting parties. Do courts, like Judge Posner asserts, tend to make decisions that enhance allocative efficiency and reduce transaction costs? Positive answers to the above questions attest to the efficiency of the judicial process. What drive efficient or inefficient outcomes are the selections and decisions by litigants, litigators, and judges. Their earlier selections and decisions affect later ones. Eleven chapters in this book, authored by leading empirical legal scholars in the world, deal with these issues in the US, Europe, and Asia.

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.

Presents Legal Skills in their real world context, preparing students for both assessment and for real life legal practice. Accessible, informal and easy to read, engaging students and providing a clear way in to the subject Supported by online learning resources via the very popular LawBore blog

While jury decision making has received considerable attention from social scientists, there have been few efforts to systematically pull together all the pieces of this research. In Jury Decision Making, Dennis J. Devine examines over 50 years of research on juries and offers a "big picture" overview of the field. The volume summarizes existing theories of jury decision making and identifies what we have learned about jury behavior, including the effects of specific courtroom practices, the nature of the trial, the characteristics of the participants, and the evidence itself. Making use of those foundations, Devine offers a new integrated theory of jury decision making that addresses both individual jurors and juries as a whole and discusses its ramifications for the courts. Providing a unique combination of broad scope, extensive coverage of the empirical research conducted over the last half century, and theory advancement, this accessible and engaging volume offers "one-stop shopping" for scholars, students, legal professionals, and those who simply wish to better understand how well the jury system works.

This book discusses the under-researched relationship between sentencing and the legitimacy of punishment. It argues that there is an increasing gap between what is perceived as legitimate punishment and the sentencing decisions of the criminal courts. Drawing on a wide variety of empirical research evidence, the book explores how sentencing could be developed within a more socially-inclusive framework for the delivery of trial justice. In the international context, such developments are directly relevant to the future role of the International Criminal Court, especially its ability to deliver more coherent and inclusive trial outcomes that contribute to social reconstruction. Similarly, in the national context, these issues have a vital role to play in helping to re-position trial justice as a credible cornerstone of criminal justice governance where social diversity persists. In so doing the book should help policy-makers in appreciating the likely implications for criminal trials of mainstreaming' restorative forms of justice. Sentencing and the Legitimacy of Trial Justice firmly ties the issue of legitimacy to the relevant context for delivering justice'. It suggests a need to develop the tools and methods for achieving this and offers some novel solutions to this complex problem. This book will be a valuable resource for graduate students, academics, practitioners and policy makers in the field of criminal justice as well as scholars interested in socio-legal and cross-disciplinary approaches to the analysis of criminal process and sentencing and the development of theory and comparative methodology in this area.

In recent years, the Supreme Court appears to have taken a greater interest in "business" issues. Does this reflect a change in the Court's orientation, or is it the natural outcome of the appellate process? Is the Court "pro-business"? If so, in what ways do the Court's decisions support business interests and what does that mean for the law and the American public? Business and the Roberts Court provides the first critical analysis of the Court's business-related jurisprudence. In this volume, prominent academics examine the Roberts Court's handling of business-related cases, through a series of empirical and doctrinal analyses. Issues covered include securities law, antitrust, labor law, preemption, and environmental law, among others. Business law and regulatory cases touch on many important legal doctrines and can have far-reaching effects. Understanding the bases upon which the Supreme Court decides business-related cases is of tremendous importance to practitioners and academics. It can also further greater understanding of one of the nation's most important government institutions. These issues are of interest to academics, but also of practical importance to Supreme Court and business practitioners.

The Brussels Ibis Regulation is the magna carta for jurisdiction and the free circulation of judgments in civil and commercial matters in the EU, and forms a cornerstone of the internal market. This timely Research Handbook addresses the cutting edges of the regime, in particular its place within the overall system of EU law and its adaptations in response to specific kinds of lawsuits or the needs of particular industries. Featuring original research by leading academics from across Europe, chapters take a systematic approach to examining a broad variety of topics in relation to the Brussels Ibis Regulation. Such topics include collective redress, injunctive relief, lis pendens and third states, negotiorum gestio, arbitration, intellectual property lawsuits, and its interface with the European Insolvency Regulation (Recast). Moving beyond what is offered by textbooks and commentaries, this incisive Research Handbook analyses the most recent developments in legislation and practice, as well as providing an outlook on the future of this field of EU law. This Research Handbook will prove a critical read for scholars and students of EU law. Judges and practitioners working in this area will also find its insights to be of significant practical relevance. Contributors include: T.M.C. Arons, S. Bollee, T.W. Dornis, P. Franzina, T. Garber, C. Heinze, A. Leandro, L.D. Loacker, P. Mankowski, F. Marougiu Buonaiuti, J. Meeusen, D. Moura Vicente, G. Payan, A. van Hoek, C. Warmuth, M.M. Winkler

In Towering Judges: A Comparative Study of Constitutional Judges, Rehan Abeyratne and Iddo Porat lead an exploration of a new topic in comparative constitutional law: towering judges. The volume examines the work of nineteen judges from fourteen jurisdictions, each of whom stood out individually among their fellow judges and had a unique impact on the trajectory of constitutional law. The chapters ask: what makes a towering judge; what are the background conditions that foster or deter the rise of towering judges; are towering judges, on balance, positive or detrimental for constitutional systems; how do towering judges differ from one jurisdiction to another; how do political and historical developments relate to this phenomenon; and how does all of this fit within global constitutionalism? The answers to these questions offer important insight into how these judges were able to shine to an uncommon degree in a profession where individualism is not always looked on favourably.

Ensuring the protection of human rights in Europe has become a highly complex exercise. Where courts are faced with a human rights claim, they not only have to examine the validity of that claim, but they also need to have a clear understanding of the human rights catalogue that is to be applied (i.e. human rights as guaranteed by the national constitution, human rights as protected under EU law, based or not on the Charter, and human rights as identified in the European Convention of Human Rights). This book zooms in on various aspects of the interaction between courts in the complex European system of human rights protection. While other books take either a European or a national approach, this book studies both the co-existence between the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice, and the impact of this dual mechanism of European human rights protection on the protection offered within specific EU Member States. This makes the book valuable for academics and practitioners who specialize in fundamental rights, EU law, or constitutional law. (Series: Law and Cosmopolitan Values - Vol. 1)

The conventional approach to law and religion assumes that these are competing domains, which raises questions about the freedom of, and from, religion; alternate commitments of religion and human rights; and respective jurisdictions of civil and religious courts. This volume moves beyond this competitive paradigm to consider law and religion as overlapping and interrelated frameworks that structure the social order, arguing that law and religion share similar properties and have a symbiotic relationship. Moreover, many legal systems exhibit religious characteristics, informing their notions of authority, precedent, rituals and canonical texts, and most religions invoke legal concepts or terminology. The contributors address this blurring of law and religion in the contexts of political theology, secularism, church-state conflicts, and the foundational idea of divine law. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

A cluster of Asian states are well-known for their authoritarian legality while having been able to achieve remarkable economic growth. Why would an authoritarian regime seek or tolerate a significant degree of legality and how has such type of legality been made possible in Asia? Would a transition towards a liberal, democratic system eventually take place and, if so, what kind of post-transition struggles are likely to be experienced? This book compares the past and current experiences of China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and Vietnam and offers a comparative framework for readers to conduct a theoretical dialogue with the orthodox conception of liberal democracy and the rule of law.

- A resource suitable for both existing legal professionals and students interested in gaining an advantage ahead of practising. - Language level benchmarked against CFER (Common European Framework of Reference) means the book can be used by tutors throughout Europe. - Addresses soft language skills not met in competing titles - Features a companion website with listening exercises and, if the book is used in the classroom, teaching notes. - Authors are experienced teachers and also former legal professionals.

This book offers the first quantitative study of decision-making on the UK Supreme Court. Covering the court's first ten years, it examines all stages of the court's decision-making process-from permission to appeal to the decision on the final outcome. The analysis of these distinct stages shows that legal factors matter. The most important predictor of whether an appellant will succeed in the Supreme Court is whether they've been able to convince judges in lower courts. The most important predictor of whether a case will be heard at all is whether it has been written up in multiple weekly law reports. But "legal factors mattering" doesn't mean that judges on the court are simply identical expressions of the law. The nature of the UK's court system means that judges arrive on the court as specialists in one or more areas of law (such as commercial law or family law), or even systems of law (the court's Scottish and Northern Irish judges). These specialisms markedly affect behavior on the court. Specialists in an area of law are more likely to hear cases in that area, and are more likely to write the lead opinion in that area. Non-specialists are less likely to disagree with specialists, and so disagreement is more likely to emerge when multiple specialists end up on the panel. Although political divisions between the justices do exist, these differences are much less marked than the divisions between experts in different areas of the law. The best way of understanding the UK Supreme Court is therefore to see it as a court of specialists.

The book examines the processes through which the resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly acquire legal significance through state practice. By using an empirically-grounded method of inquiry, it examines how states attribute legal significance to resolutions in three different contexts: at the time of adoption, within domestic law and in international practice. The book shows that, contrary to the existent theories on the legal significance of resolutions, the General Assembly is not a unitary actor. It also demonstrates that the concept of legal significance of resolutions is not predetermined or static. While resolutions are often framed in normative language, they acquire legal significance only to the extent that states find it desirable or convenient, depending on context and circumstances. Consequently, the attribution of legal significance to resolutions turns out to be a manifestation of state will to abide by their content, not the will of the General Assembly.

The contemporary landscape of transnational political economy is dominated by networks. Public and private networks, and networks that combine public and private actors, cross borders, exert regulatory power and their activities often harm third parties. However, tort law as a traditional source of remediation for third party harms appears impotent when faced with the problem of regulating the 'society of networks'. This book, using a systems theory framework, retraces the emergence of tort law in modernity and highlights how two models of normative ascription - personal responsibility and organizational liability - have come to shape existing tort law's ambivalence towards network phenomena. This book breaks new ground by leaving behind the national law 'frame of reference', drawing on the conceptual promise of EU law to develop a concept of 'network responsibility' for a network society and lays the foundations of a tort law for the 21st century.

In civil cases, the facts of the case are often decisive. This book provides a comparative analysis of the process of fact-finding in the litigation process. It offers theoretical insights on the distinctive features of the fact-finding arrangements in civil cases in Austria, the Netherlands, and the United States. It also examines the empirical data that sheds light on the operation of procedural rules in legal practice. The book studies specific fact-finding regulations as components of an entire system and places them in a broader context. It analyzes the history of fact-finding arrangements to elucidate the legal tradition that has shaped the mindset of practitioners and legislators. In addition, the relationship between procedural rules and the prevailing constitutional and political theory is discussed. Rules are commonly designed and adopted to promote procedural values, such as efficiency, legitimacy, accuracy, and fairness. Fact-Finding in Civil Litigation discusses the values that are most prominent in the Dutch, Austrian, and American legal systems. It explains how many differences between systems flow from these different fundamental starting points.

Every year, millions of people across Europe - innocent and guilty - are arrested and detained by the police. For some, their cases go no further than the police station, but many others eventually appear before a court. Many will spend time in custody both before and following trial. Initial attempts by the European Union to establish minimum procedural rights for suspects and defendants failed in 2007, in the face of opposition by a number of Member States who argued that the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rendered EU regulation unnecessary. However, with ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, criminal defense rights are again on the agenda. Based on a three year research study, this book explores and compares access to effective defense in criminal proceedings across nine European jurisdictions (Belgium, England/Wales, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, and Turkey) that constitute examples of the three major legal traditions in Europe: inquisitorial, adversarial, and post-state socialist. Part I sets out the research methodology and analysis of the baseline requirements that, according to ECHR case law, have an impact on the rights of the accused. In addition to the general fair trial rights (the presumption of innocence, the right to silence, equality of arms, and the (conditional) right to release pending trial) the rights explored include: the right to information, the right to legal assistance and legal aid, and a number of procedural rights (the right to adequate time and facilities to prepare a defense, participation rights, the right to free interpretation and translation, and the right to reasoned decisions and to appeal). Part II consists of a description and critical analysis of access to effective criminal defense in the nine countries examined. Part III includes a cross-jurisdictional analysis of compliance, in law and in practice, with the ECHR requirements. It also contains an analysis of how they interrelate, and of whether structures, systems, and legal cultures exist to enable individuals to effectively exercise these rights. This book contributes to implementation of the rights of suspects and defendants to a real and effective defense, especially for those who lack the means to pay for legal assistance themselves. The recommendations are designed to contribute to the development of meaningful policies and processes that will help to ensure effective criminal defense across the EU. The book is essential reading for academics, researchers, students, defense lawyers, and policy-makers in the area of criminal justice in Europe.