With the recent explosion of high-profile court cases and staggering jury awards, America's justice system has moved to the forefront of our nation's consciousness. Yet while the average citizen is bombarded with information about a few sensational cases--such as the multi-million dollar damages awarded a woman who burned herself with McDonald's coffee-- most Americans are unaware of the truly dramatic transformation our courts and judicial system have undergone over the past three decades, and of the need to reform the system to adapt to that transformation.

In Reforming the Civil Justice System, Larry Kramer has compiled a work that charts these revolutionary changes and offers solutions to the problems they present. Organized into three parts, the book investigates such topics as settlement incentives and joint tortfeasors, substance and form in the treatment of scientific evidence after Daubert v. Merrell Dow, and guiding jurors in valuing pain and suffering damages. Reforming the Civil Justice System offers feasible solutions that can realistically be adopted as our civil justice system continues to be refined and improved.

Today juvenile delinquents are viewed and treated much like adult criminals. The goal of rehabilitating and reforming youthful offenders--once the primary function of juvenile courts--has largely been abandoned in the past decade in favor of a punishment-orientation that includes extended periods of incarceration. This study, written by a distinguished group of criminologists, legal experts, and social scientists, attempts to determine the reasons for the decline in interest in rehabilitation, what can be done to revive it, and whether rehabilitation is ultimately a practical approach to the problem of juvenile crime.

This reference volume will assist the attorney who needs to understand inheritance laws, administration, and probate proceedings in other states and foreign jurisdictions. Among the areas covered are rights of intestacy, rights of pretermitted and posthumous children, and rights of election by surviving spouses. The book also addresses problems inherent in probate, administration, and kinship proceedings and furnishes the attorney with a method for gathering the information these proceedings require. Henner also highlights Western European estate tax treaties and their interaction with the laws of the United States, thus providing a rudimentary foundation for understanding the conflict of laws. He also provides commentary on common law, community property, administrative duties, etc. Finally, the volume contains organizational charts and informational data sheets, as well as a directory of bar associations.

This brand new edition of "Death Penalty Cases" makes the most manageable comprehensive resource on the death penalty even better. It includes the most recent cases, including Kennedy v. Louisiana, prohibiting the death penalty for child rapists, and Baze v. Rees, upholding execution by lethal injection. In addition, all of the cases are now topically organized into five sections: * The Foundational Cases * Death-Eligibility: Which persons/crimes are fit for the death penalty? * The Death Penalty Trial * Post-conviction Review * Execution Issues The introductory essays on the history, administration, and controversies surrounding capital punishment have been thoroughly revised. The statistical appendix has been brought up-to-date, and the statutory appendixhas beenrestructured. For clarity, accuracy, complete impartiality and comprehensiveness, there simply is no better resource on capital punishment available.

* Provides the most recent case material--no need to supplement. * Topical organization of cases provides a more logical organization for structuring a course. * Co-authors with different perspectives on the death penalty assures complete impartiality of the material. * Provides the necessary historical background, a clear explanation of the current capital case process, and an impartial description of the controversies surrounding the death penalty * Provides the latest statistics relevant to discussions on the death penalty. * Clearly explains the different ways in which the states process death penalty cases, with excerpts of the most relevant statutes."

Smith introduces a new concept, "critical judicial nominations," to advance scholars' understanding of the consequences of the federal nomination process for the Supreme Court and the American political system. The study suggests that specific events related to the judicial branch, namely "critical judicial nominations," have significant unanticipated consequences for the Supreme Court's role in the political system, as well as for electoral politics. This is demonstrated in illustrative historical examples which, most importantly, include an in-depth case study of the Clarence Thomas nomination and its subsequent ramifications.

Part of ABC-CLIO's groundbreaking About State Government set, this volume is the first comprehensive resource to focus exclusively on judicial politics at the state level, covering all 50 states and demonstrating the profound influence state courts have on American life. The Judicial Branch of State Government: People, Process, and Politics reveals the workings of a network of courts that generate tremendous legal activity and yet have not previously been the focus of a comprehensive, in-depth reference. Beginning with the origins of American law, this volume examines the many different types of state court cases, legal decision-making processes, court administration procedures and personnel, and political issues such as judicial selection and funding. A concluding section summarizes the structure and mechanisms of the court systems of each of the 50 states. Filling a major reference need, the titles in ABC-CLIO's About State Government set offer comprehensive coverage of contemporary American politics at the state level. Each of the three volumes focuses on a specific governmental branch, providing both general information and comparative details of how that branch operates in each state. Written by scholars in the study of law and politics-all experts on the structure, function, and societal impact of state courts Provides numerous tables and graphs to help readers comprehend the complexities of each state's court system

Cultural Difference on Trial: The Nature and Limits of Judicial Understanding comprises a sustained philosophical exploration of the capacity of the modern liberal democratic legal system to understand the thought and practice of those culturally different minorities who come before it as claimants, defendants or witnesses. Exploring this issue from within the tradition of contemporary analytical and naturalistic philosophy and drawing upon recent developments in the philosophy of mind and language, this volume is informed by a sound academic and practical grasp of the workings of the legal system itself. Systematically analysing the nature and limits of a judge's ability to understand culturally different thought and action over the course of a trial, this volume is essential reading for anyone interested in the workings of the modern legal system.

In this book, 78 leading attorneys in California and New York describe how they evaluate, negotiate and resolve litigation cases. Selected for their demonstrated skill in predicting trial outcomes and knowing when cases should be settled or taken to trial, these attorneys identify the key factors in case evaluation and share successful strategies in pre-trial discovery, negotiation, mediation, and trials. Integrating law and psychology, the book shows how skilled attorneys mentally frame cases, understand jurors' perspectives, develop persuasive themes and arguments and achieve exceptional results for clients.

The Contract is the core tool of governance in a free market economy. An EU Contract Law Code is now on the political agenda because all three legislative bodies in the EU and most member states favour it in principle. In its communication of July 2001, the Commission proposed three major options: to enhance the existing EC Contract Law by eliminating inconsistencies; introducing a European Code which substitutes national laws; and introducing a European code which only supplements national laws. This book achieves three things: For the first time, European academia is discussing these three options in an extensive and systematic way - with pros and cons, in a transparent and systematic way, along broad lines and often also important details. The book contains the views of all protagonists - from all those who really drafted the models to all those who illustrated the potential of decentralized rule-making and invented the very idea of an Optional Code. And it is the first book in which the optional Code, which is the alternative most likely to come, is thoroughly analysed at all. The book also contains a full map of design possibilities. It is the executive summary of what European academia thinks of the future of European Contract Law and a European Code. It is the Academic Green Paper on European Contract Law.

In the public law area, there is an understanding that judicial decision making is not always objective, that the courts are not constrained by the law and the facts of the case, and that courts are actually policy makers influenced by extraneous factors that have little to do the legal and factual matters of a case. Through a combination of an integrative review of the relevant literature in the public law area and new case studies researched by the author, Barbara Yarnold argues that the public law area has discarded the traditional view of the judiciary as a passive interpreter of the law who truly weigh the facts of each case. She examines political and environmental variables that have been used to explain judicial outcomes and develops an original general theory of public law explaining under what circumstances political variables impact court decisions, and when region, as an environmental variable, is related to judicial outcomes. The central question in this study is When exactly do the law and the facts count? As Yarnold's analyses of the judicial decision field draw variables from political science, economics, psychology, and criminal justice, among other fields, this work also suggests that the public law area is multidisciplinary in nature. The book concludes with a case study examination of interest groups involved in asylum-related appeals and their role in the Sanctuary Movement. Students and scholars of public administration, law and society, and public law will find Yarnold's integration of research and current literature toward a general theory of public law highly provocative and interesting.

Courts are constantly required to know how people think. They may have to decide what a specific person was thinking on a past occasion; how others would have reacted to a particular situation; or whether a witness is telling the truth. Be they judges, jurors or magistrates, the law demands they penetrate human consciousness. This book questions whether the arm-chair psychology' operated by fact-finders, and indeed the law itself, in its treatment of the fact-finders, bears any resemblance to the knowledge derived from psychological research. Comparing psychological theory with court verdicts in both civil and criminal contexts, it assesses where the separation between law and science is most acute, and most dangerous.

The clergy abuse scandal has posed the greatest threat to the traditional understanding of the Catholic priesthood since the Protestant Reformation. Now, as then, the deadliest attacks are coming from within the Church. In an attempt to improve a system that allowed a small minority of the clergy to violate children and ameliorate the gross negligence of some bishops who recycled these predators, the American bishops instituted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People in 2002. It is, unfortunately, doing the Church more harm than good.

In Hope Springs Eternal in the Priestly Breast, Fr. James Valladares shows how justice and charity have been violated by some bishops in dealing with accused priests. He examines the pertinent canons that guide the Church's judicial system and finds that these are often ignored or wrongly applied. He provides true cases that highlight the injustice of the process and the agony of priests who have been subjected to the charter's draconian mandates.

The Church has incurred tremendous financial losses because of settlements rising from both legitimate and false claims. Her image has been marred by the secular media, which has taken advantage of the crisis. Even so, we often fail to understand how trivial these are in comparison to the damage done to the priesthood by the enactment of the charter's policies. This is the most pressing issue that the bishops need to address.

The public image of judges has been stuck in a time warp; they are invariably depicted in the media - and derided in public bars up and down the country - as 'privately educated Oxbridge types', usually 'out-of-touch', and more often than not as 'old men'. These and other stereotypes - the judge as a pervert, the judge as a right-wing monster - have dogged the judiciary long since any of them ceased to have any basis in fact. Indeed the limited research that was permitted in the 1960s and 1970s tended to reinforce several of these stereotypes. Moreover, occasional high profile incidents in the courts, elaborated with the help of satirists such as 'Private Eye' and 'Monty Python', have ensured that the 'old white Tory judge' caricature not only survives but has come to be viewed as incontestable. Since the late 1980s the judiciary has changed, largely as a result of the introduction of training and new and more transparent methods of recruitment and appointment. But how much has it changed, and what are the courts like after decades of judicial reform? Given unprecedented access to the whole range of courts - from magistrates' courts to the Supreme Court - Penny Darbyshire spent seven years researching the judges, accompanying them in their daily work, listening to their conversations, observing their handling of cases and the people who come before them, and asking them frank and searching questions about their lives, careers and ambitions. What emerges is without doubt the most revealing and compelling picture of the modern judiciary in England and Wales ever seen. From it we learn that not only do the old stereotypes not hold, but that modern 'baby boomer' judges are more representative of the people they serve and that the reforms are working. But this new book also gives an unvarnished glimpse of the modern courtroom which shows a legal system under stress, lacking resources but facing an ever-increasing caseload. This book will be essential reading for anyone wishing to know about the experience of modern judging, the education, training and professional lives of judges, and the current state of the courts and judiciary in England and Wales.

This title poses a challenge to the consensus on the best way to reform legal systems in order to attract and support foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries. Using detailed examples from Sri Lanka, it shows that the "ideal paradigm" approach to legal reform espoused by multilateral development organizations and bilateral aid donors is not only fundamentally flawed, but misconceived for reasons that we may not fully understand. The author recommends a shift in emphasis from the "global" legal reform agenda to a country-specific approach, based on a rigorous formulation of the common ground where the expectations of investors and the countries in question meet. The crux of this "ideal paradigm" approach resides in the generally accepted belief that a Western-style market-oriented, rule-bound legal system is the sine qua non of successfully attracting and supporting FDI. However, through a wide-ranging survey of Sri Lankan and foreign business people, lawyers, non-legal advisers, NGO workers, diplomats, development workers, and government officials, Perry shows that this is far from the case. Investors are generally insensitive to the nature of the host state legal system when making the decision to invest, and their perceptions and expectations of the host state legal system may be significantly affected by such factors as their nationality, export orientation and size. Perry suggests that the conclusions drawn from this detailed analysis from Sri Lanka, applied on a global scale, have the potential to greatly improve the quality of many developing countries' participation in the world economy. The positive and forward-looking thesis of this book will be of great value to policymakers in international organisations and donor government agencies, to law firms handling international business transactions, and to academics in development and other areas of international finance, as well as to investors everywhere.

The European Court of Justice is widely acknowledged to have played a fundamental role in developing the constitutional law of the EU, having been the first to establish such key doctrines as direct effect, supremacy and parallelism in external relations. Traditionally, EU scholarship has praised the role of the ECJ, with more critical perspectives being given little voice in mainstream EU studies. From the standpoint of legal reasoning, Gerard Conway offers the first sustained critical assessment of how the ECJ engages in its function and offers a new argument as to how it should engage in legal reasoning. He also explains how different approaches to legal reasoning can fundamentally change the outcome of case law and how the constitutional values of the EU justify a different approach to the dominant method of the ECJ.

Lack of access of the poor and middle class to civil courts, suits that benefit only lawyers, litigation tactics devoted to victory rather than truth or justice, and inefficient courts are some of the issues addressed by Judge Gerber in his outspoken critical appraisal of America's legal profession and judiciary. The author suggests practical--and in some cases radical--remedies needed to make the system responsive to the public and to give substance to the ideal of equal justice for all. Gerber's criticisms of the legal profession today are far-reaching, and the self-reflection in which he asks us to engage is difficult, even uncomfortable. But it is a necessary step in the continuing efforts we all must make to ensure that our profession upholds the highest ideals of professional responsibility. Sandra Day O'Connor, Supreme Court of the United States Lack of access of the poor and middle class to civil courts, suits that benefit only lawyers, litigation tactics devoted to victory rather than truth or justice, and inefficient courts are some of the issues addressed by Judge Gerber in his outspoken critical appraisal of America's legal profession and judiciary. The author suggests practical--and in some cases radical--remedies needed to make the system responsive to the public and to give substance to the ideal of equal justice for all. Following an introductory overview of the troubled condition of our legal system, Judge Gerber considers the narrow process by which future lawyers are selected and the financial motivations that commonly inspire them to study law. He next takes a hard look at legal education, noting that the litigation model now in vogue inculcates a mentality of combat and downgrades peacemaking and negotiating skills. In a discussion of bar exams, Judge Gerber points out that these tests measure neither ethics nor competency and fail to provide for specialty licensing, for which he recommends periodic reexamination and peer review. Commenting on the complexity, confusion, delays, and extortionate costs that prevent equal access to justice, the author offers specific suggestions for streamlining court procedures and revamping the court system by managerial and procedural changes. He examines ethical abuse by courtroom litigators, contending that periodic ethical review and specialized training are needed to insure that justice is served. Concluding with a critical analysis of major competing jurisprudential theories, Judge Gerber argues that a return to natural law ideals is needed to reinspire lawyers and judges with a philosophical sense of the foundations of justice. This important new work is particularly relevant for legal educators and professionals and for courses dealing with the legal profession, legal ethics, the judiciary, and the court system.

"Must reading for anyone who seeks a better understanding of the U.S. Supreme Court's role in race relations policy."
--"Choice"

"Beware Those committed to the Supreme Court as the ultimate defender of minority rights should not read Race Against the Court. Through a systematic peeling away of antimajoritarian myth, Spann reveals why the measure of relief the Court grants victims of racial injustice is determined less by the character of harm suffered by blacks than the degree of disadvantage the relief sought will impose on whites. A truly pathbreaking work."
--Derrick Bell

As persuasive as it is bold. Race Against The Court stands as a necessary warning to a generation of progressives who have come to depend on the Supreme Court of the perils of such dependency. It joins with Bruce Ackerman's We, the People and John Brigham's Cult of the Court as the best in contemporary work on the Supreme Court.
--Austin Sarat, William Nelson, Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College

The controversies surrounding the nominations, confirmations, and rejections of recent Supreme Court justices, and the increasingly conservative nature of the Court, have focused attention on the Supreme Court as never before. Although the Supreme Court is commonly understood to be the guardian of minority rights against the tyranny of the majority, Race Against The Court argues that the Court has never successfully performed this function. Rather the actual function of the Court has been to perpetuate the subordination of racial minorities by operating as an undetected agent of majoritarian preferences in the political preferences. In this provocative, controversial, and timely work, Girardeau Spann illustrates how the selection process for Supreme Court justices ensures that they will share the political preferences of the elite majority that runs the nation. Customary safeguards that are designed to protect the judicial process from majoritarian predispositions, Spann contends, cannot successfully insulate judicial decisionmaking from the pervasive societal pressures that exist to discount racial minority interests.

The case most often cited as the icon of Court sensitivity to minority rights, Brown v. Board of Education, has more recently served to lull minorities into believing that efforts at political self-determination are futile, fostering a seductive dependence and overreliance on the Court as the caretaker of minority rights. Race Against The Court demonstrates how the Court has centralized the law of affirmative action in a way that stymies minority efforts for meaningful political and economic gain and how it has legitimated the legal status quo in a way that causes minorities never even to question the inevitability of their subordinate social status.

Spann contends that racial minorities would be better off seeking to advance their interests in the pluralist political process and proposes a novel strategy for minorities to pursue in order to extricate themselves from the seemingly inescapable grasp of Supreme Court protection. Certain to generate lively, heated debate, "Race Against The Court" exposes the veiled majoritarianism of the Supreme Court and the dangers of allowing the Court to formulate our national racial policy.

Dominance is an integral aspect of strategy. Strategy, whether in war, sports or business, is about how one can place themselves in a competitive position that gives them an advantage over competitors. If that position can be made so overwhelming by one competitor that others are effectively taken out of effective competition, that competitor is dominant. Dominance wins. The game is over. Everyone else is playing for second place or lower. Creating Dominance describes how successful law firms have gone about dominating their marketplaces - be they a practice area, a city or an industry. The book begins by describing the characteristics that identify a dominant firm and the precise strategies law firms can use to put themselves in a position of dominance.

In June of 1972, the Democratic National Party headquarters in Washington, D.C., was the site of one of the most famous burglaries in U.S. history. The abortive Watergate break-in and subsequent cover-up is reexamined in this book from the unique perspective of the Supreme Court judges, who grappled with its political and legal ramifications. Howard Ball presents the litigation in the U.S. vs. Nixon case from the inside out, analyzing the constitutional issues that faced the court and the way in which the justices worked to resolve conflicts, overcome obstacles, and arrive at an institutional opinion. In recounting the tragedy of Watergate from the viewpoint of the judges, the book makes use of a number of important original sources, including interviews and letters from the justices. Perhaps most important in telling this story, though, are the conference notes and docket sheets of the Court members, especially those of Justices William J. Brennan, Jr., and William O. Douglas. To set the Watergate tapes litigation against the proper background, Ball also examines the role of the federal judiciary in the political system, the crucial concept of judicial review, and the Supreme Court's processes and personnel at the time of the litigation. A selected bibliography and comprehensive index conclude the work. As a unique chronicle of the Watergate scandal, this book will be a valuable resource for courses in American history, legal studies, and the Supreme Court, as well as a significant addition to academic, legal, and public libraries.

Lopeman examines the impact advocacy of intentional judicial activism by a justice of a state supreme court can have on establishing the court as a policy maker. He examines the attitudinal model and the judicial role model of decision making and concludes that, while the attitudinal model might describe the decision-making process in the U.S. Supreme Court, the judicial role model better describes decision making in state supreme courts. This judicial role model allows the activist to transform a court into a policy maker.

The traditions, recent history, and biographies of recent justices of the Indiana, West Virginia, and Ohio courts are examined to establish a significant relationship between the presence of an activist advocate justice and active policy making by the courts. These courts' decisions in cases with policy making potential are contrasted with decisions in similar cases of three state supreme courts that did not have an advocate justice. Lopeman argues that the presence of an activist advocate explains a court's transformation to active policy making, and that other apparent explanations are insufficient. He emphasizes that the motives of an activist advocate are likely to determine the permanence of policy making in the court. This volume is an important resource for political scientists, legal scholars, and other researchers involved with judicial decision making, state politics, and state constitutional law.

It has been many years since O. J. Simpson walked free from a downtown Los Angeles courtroom. For many, it was the demolition of the fundamental principle of right and wrong, and many debated the deficiencies of the American justice system. Since then, we have witnessed the Casey Anthony case, and others, that remind us of issues unaddressed and questions unanswered. In Fixing the Engine of Justice, author David Tunno presents the symptoms of a defective jury system and offers comprehensive, intelligent, and thought-provoking solutions. Tunno, a trial consultant for more than twenty years, has studied and researched key trials and has gleaned stories from his personal experiences to show a system beset with representation issues, incompetence, bias, misconduct, and lack of support and public perception based on misconceptions. He analyzes the flaws in the jury selection process, its lack of effectiveness, and the ways in which it contributes to the delivery of justice. Often humorous and irreverent, Fixing the Engine of Justice offers a diagnosis of the problems and a list of needed repairs to the American legal system. With the prime focus on juries, Tunno also takes aim at judges, attorneys, and other issues relevant to the health of the system.