American methods of policy implementation and dispute resolution are more adversarial and legalistic when compared with the systems of other economically advanced countries. Americans more often rely on legal threats and lawsuits. American laws are generally more complicated and prescriptive, adjudication more costly, and penalties more severe. In a thoughtful and cogently argued book, Robert Kagan examines the origins and consequences of this system of "adversarial legalism." Kagan describes the roots of adversarial legalism and the deep connections it has with American political institutions and values. He investigates its social costs as well as the extent to which lawyers perpetuate it. Ranging widely across many legal fields, including criminal law, environmental regulations, tort law, and social insurance programs, he provides comparisons with the legal and regulatory systems of western Europe, Canada, and Japan that point to possible alternatives to the American methods. Kagan notes that while adversarial legalism has many virtues, its costs and unpredictability often alienate citizens from the law and frustrate the quest for justice. This insightful study deepens our understanding of law and its relationship to politics in America and raises valuable questions about the future of the American legal system.

Product Description: The essays collected here, somewhat autobiographical in their effect, range from a discussion of the despair of the Cold War and Vietnam in 1966 to reflections on the euphoria over the ending of the Cold War in Eastern Europe in 1990...read more

(view table of contents)

Product Description: An examination of the language of law in the area of political representation, this book considers the development and recognition of group claims brought pursuant to the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause in Supreme Court opinions...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This book is a critique of a tradition of moral theories involving what the author terms "the politicization of morality", a phrase indicating a reduction of morality to a function of political necessities. The author locates within this tradition such diverse figures as Plato's Glaucon, Thomas Hobbes and John Rawls and so challenges the legitimacy of a philosophical project of both ancient origin and great contemporary influence...read more

Product Description: This book examines both the constitutional jurisprudence of Supreme Court justice Louis D. Brandeis and one of his most famous and controversial opinions, Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins (1938). This landmark decision led to a significant relocation of power from federal to state courts, and, says the author, it provides a window on the legal, political, and ideological battles over the federal courts in the New Deal era and after...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Explores the 2000 Presidential election and its legal and political consequences, and profiles federal and state electoral laws to provide a plan for reforming electoral practices and an explanation for why such reforms are necessary. (view table of contents)

(view table of contents)

Product Description: [Destutt de Tracy, Antoine Louis Claude, Comte. [Jefferson, Thomas]. A Commentary and Review of Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, Prepared For Press From the Original Manuscript in the Hands of the Publisher. To Which Are Annexed, Observations on the Thirty-First Book, by the Late M...read more

Product Description: This book compares and contrasts several constitutional traditions from various regions of the world. The first chapter provides the foundation for norms, ideas, and values that frame this comparison. Western and Eastern concepts of law, the relationship of law and ideology, the common law and civil law systems, tribal law, property, rights and liberties, and other themes establish the basis for the remaining chapters of the book, which includes examinations of the American, British, Chinese, Canadian, Japanese, Indian, Nigerian, French, German, Saudi Arabian, and Mexican constitutional traditions within their legal and broader political contexts...read more

Product Description: This volume was the first to attempt the systematic analysis of the structure and function of the courts as a major method of conflict resolution in society. Seventeen years after it was first published by Rand McNally in 1970, it remains the only such study.

Product Description: The U.S. Attorney General is forever caught between competing demands: on one side, his political duties as cabinet appointee and adviser to the president; on the other, his quasi-judicial responsibilities as chief law officer of the nation...read more

Product Description: When average Americans think of rights, they generally conceive of written guarantees, like the Bill of Rights, which provide a framework for the defense and protection of individuals. But America has changed since the Constitution was written―technologically in terms of cars, telephones, and e-mail, and socially in terms of changing marriage patterns, urban violence, and gender equality...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

(view table of contents)

Product Description: Here is a comprehensive account of the U.S. constitution--including its evolution and its impact on shaping American government and political representation. In eight fact-filled chapters, the authors carefully explore the U.S. Constitution's role...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

(view table of contents)

Product Description: If we define the term 'constitutional' to mean rules, procedures, or substantive laws fundamental to the republic by way of widespread political agreement or consensus, then what is considered constitutional by way of original text and formal amendment is not necessarily qualitatively superior to that which is considered constitutional merely by way of case law and institutional practices held in place by partisan balances of power...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: The Italian Constitutional Court has solidified its position as an important actor in Italian politics. In this book, Mary Volcansek analyzes the Court's role in arbitrating legislative and executive relations and those of the national and regional governments, its activities in trying ministers, and in filtering referendum proposals, and its contribution to the solution of the problem of media pluralism...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This account of the development of the Supreme Court's modern civil liberties and rights jurisprudence argues that the courts' supposed "new concern" for "personal freedoms" (after the New Deal) actually developed as the outgrowth of a sequence of highly particular progressive-reformist ideological currents that formed the modern American state...read more

Product Description: Explores how a famous trial court judge used rhetorical strategies to engage the public and the legal community in challenging the accepted views of the proper roles for the courts and the community in the pursuit of justice. Analyzes the role of Judge Lord in stimulating public debate about some well-known and controversial cases and in doing so helps enrich our understanding of how trial court judicial rhetoric and opinions can contribute to public understanding and a fruitful discussion of the law, the courts, and their relationship to the community...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)