This forward-thinking book examines numerous features in the European Union (EU) legal system that serve to reduce legal uncertainty in the preliminary reference procedure and the rulings of the Court of Justice. Drawing on theories from legal realist Karl Llewellyn, legal steadying factors such as legal doctrine and interpretative techniques are reviewed alongside the primary focus of this book, extra-legal steadying factors. As well as focusing on the contribution made by judges' legal backgrounds, John Cotter also investigates the role of the balance between institutional and personal independence and accountability. He further applies Karl Llewellyn's approach and re-models it into a European setting, identifying the EU legal system features that assist in promoting decisional steadiness in the preliminary reference procedure. Exploring also the significance of procedural rules and practices at the Court of Justice in steadying outcomes, this book will be an excellent resource for scholars of the EU legal system. Its analysis of the role of factors that steady the rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union will also make this a useful read for legal theorists interested in examining the factors that influence judicial decision-making.

More than the story of one man's case, this book tells the story of entire generations of people marked as "mixed race" in America amid slavery and its aftermath, and being officially denied their multicultural identity and personal rights as a result. Contrary to popular misconceptions, Plessy v. Ferguson was not a simple case of black vs. white separation, but rather a challenging and complex protest for U.S. law to fully accept mixed ancestry and multiculturalism. This book focuses on the long struggle for individual identity and multicultural recognition amid the dehumanizing and depersonalizing forces of American Negro slavery-and the Anglo-American white supremacy that drove it. The book takes students and general readers through the extended gestation period that gave birth to one of the most oft-mentioned but widely misunderstood landmark law will cases in U.S. history. It provides a chronology, brief biographies of key figures, primary documents, an annotated bibliography, and an index all of which provide easy reading and quick reference. Modern readers will find the direct connections between Plessy's story and contemporary racial currents in America intriguing.

Timely and incisive, this book offers a critical insight into the legal structure of EU development cooperation policy, exploring the innate complexities that give rise to legal challenges in this crucial area of EU external action. Investigating the interaction between the key tenets of coherence and conferral, Dr. Tina Van den Sanden assesses how the Union's legal framework affects the attainment of its development cooperation objectives. Demonstrating the inherent tension between the central principle of conferral, which restricts the Union's legal competences to the boundaries established within its Treaties, and the need for coherence, this ambitious book provides an insightful analysis of EU development cooperation policy. Chapters further scrutinise the legal scope of such policy and its delimitation with closely linked policy areas of environment, the common commercial policy (CCP), and the common foreign and security policy (CFSP); establish the division of competences and cooperation between the Union and its Member States; and evaluate the management of the institutional division of competences between different EU actors. The book concludes with an assessment of whether the Union's legal, constitutional, and institutional structures are equipped to meet and support its own development cooperation aims. Both legal scholars and practitioners interested in EU external relations law will benefit from this book's comprehensive analysis of the underlying legal frameworks that form and influence EU development cooperation policy.

Recent U.S. elections have defied nationwide majority preference at the White House, Senate, and House levels. This work of interdisciplinary scholarship explains how ''winner-take-all'' and single-member district elections make this happen, and what can be done to repair the system. Proposed reforms include the National Popular Vote interstate compact (presidential elections); eliminating the Senate filibuster; and proportional representation using Ranked Choice Voting for House, state, and local elections. This timely analysis of election law and politics outlining key structural election reforms combines distinct analysis of presidential, Senate, and U.S. House elections reforms, while also addressing reforms at the state and local government level. The author argues for fundamental structural changes to U.S. elections like Proportional Representation and Ranked Choice Voting, without requiring any constitutional amendments. Analysis of recent political developments such as progress on the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, the adoption of Ranked Choice Voting state-wide in Maine, and the 2018 Supreme Court gerrymandering cases add real-world relevance and applicability. This sharp examination of a flawed system is vital reading for students and scholars involved in election law and political science, and is approachable enough for lay readers interested in politics and reform as well. 'Rethinking US Election Law is a timely, well-written argument in favour of electoral reform in the United States. It advances achievable solutions that could go a long way towards solving the country's current democratic breakdown, and is an excellent read for anyone interested in ''unskewing the system''.' - Erica Frazier, LSE Review 'Steven Mulroy's Rethinking US Election Law is a concise and refreshing book on US election law. The book takes the reader on a tour through the various and profound shortcomings of the country's reliance on single-member districts (SMDs) and demonstrates that, so long as these SMDs remain the principal building block of US elections, little can be done to resolve the many ailments that afflict the process. It is a powerful, thoughtfully-reasoned and clearly-written argument in favor of electoral reform.. . . Mulroy offers a compelling argument for electoral reform that should be required reading for the next redistricting cycle or for any undergraduate class on voting rights and redistricting. Even the most skeptical critic would have difficulty refuting his analysis.' - American Political Science Association 'Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, Rethinking US Election Law is a seminal work of outstanding scholarship that is as thoughtful as it is thought-provoking. . . (it) is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to community, academic, governmental Contemporary Political Science collections and supplemental studies reading lists for students, academia, political activists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject.' - John Taylor, Midwest Book Review