Do Great Cases Make Bad Law?

Do Great Cases Make Bad Law? PDF Author: Lackland H. Bloom (Jr.)
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019976588X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Get Book

Book Description
Justice Holmes proclaimed that 'great cases, like hard cases make bad law'. He explained that this was so because the 'hydraulic pressures' of the great case tend to distort the judgements of the justices. The purpose of this book is to examine 25 great cases that arose throughout the history of the Supreme Court and to attempt to determine whether Holmes was correct. More particularly, the book discusses the impact that the greatness of the case may have had on its presentation to the Court, the Court's deliberations, the decision, the opinion and the law that was created.

Do Great Cases Make Bad Law?

Do Great Cases Make Bad Law? PDF Author: Lackland H. Bloom (Jr.)
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019976588X
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 466

Get Book

Book Description
Justice Holmes proclaimed that 'great cases, like hard cases make bad law'. He explained that this was so because the 'hydraulic pressures' of the great case tend to distort the judgements of the justices. The purpose of this book is to examine 25 great cases that arose throughout the history of the Supreme Court and to attempt to determine whether Holmes was correct. More particularly, the book discusses the impact that the greatness of the case may have had on its presentation to the Court, the Court's deliberations, the decision, the opinion and the law that was created.

The Common Law

The Common Law PDF Author: Oliver Wendell Holmes
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Common law
Languages : en
Pages : 448

Get Book

Book Description


The Law of Good People

The Law of Good People PDF Author: Yuval Feldman
Publisher:
ISBN: 1107137101
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book

Book Description
Plato has famously argued ...

Great Cases in Constitutional Law

Great Cases in Constitutional Law PDF Author: Robert P. George
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691049526
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Get Book

Book Description
Slavery, segregation, abortion, workers' rights, the power of the courts. These issues have been at the heart of the greatest constitutional controversies in American history. And in this concise and thought-provoking volume, some of today's most distinguished legal scholars and commentators explain for a general audience how five landmark Supreme Court cases centered on those controversies shaped the country's destiny and continue to affect us even now. The book is a profound exploration of the Supreme Court's importance to America's social and political life. It is also, as many of the contributors show, an intriguing reflection of what some have seen as an important trend in legal scholarship away from an uncritical belief in the essentially benign nature of judicial power. Robert George opens with an illuminating survey of the themes that unite and divide the five cases. Other contributors then examine each case in detail through a lively commentary-and-response format. Mark Tushnet and Jeremy Waldron exchange views on Marbury v. Madison, the pivotal 1803 case that established the power of the courts to invalidate legislation. Cass Sunstein and James McPherson discuss Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), the notorious case that confirmed the rights of slaveowners, declared that black people could not be American citizens, and is often seen as a cause of the Civil War. Hadley Arkes and Donald Drakeman explore the legacy of Lochner v. New York (1905), a case that ushered in decades of judicial hostility to social welfare laws. Earl Maltz and Walter Murphy assess Brown v. Topeka Board of Education (1954), the famous case that ended racial segregation in public schools. Finally, Jean Bethke Elshtain and George Will tackle Roe v. Wade (1973), still a flashpoint a quarter of a century later in the debate over abortion. While some of the contributors show sympathy for strong judicial interventions on social issues, many across the ideological spectrum are sharply critical of judicial activism. A compelling introduction to the greatest cases in U.S. constitutional law, this is also an enlightening glimpse of the state of the art in American legal scholarship.

How Rights Went Wrong

How Rights Went Wrong PDF Author: Jamal Greene
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
ISBN: 1328518116
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 341

Get Book

Book Description
An eminent constitutional scholar reveals how our approach to rights is dividing America, and shows how we can build a better system of justice.

Model Rules of Professional Conduct

Model Rules of Professional Conduct PDF Author: American Bar Association. House of Delegates
Publisher: American Bar Association
ISBN: 9781590318737
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Get Book

Book Description
The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

The Living Constitution

The Living Constitution PDF Author: David A. Strauss
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199752539
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Get Book

Book Description
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia once remarked that the theory of an evolving, "living" Constitution effectively "rendered the Constitution useless." He wanted a "dead Constitution," he joked, arguing it must be interpreted as the framers originally understood it. In The Living Constitution, leading constitutional scholar David Strauss forcefully argues against the claims of Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork, and other "originalists," explaining in clear, jargon-free English how the Constitution can sensibly evolve, without falling into the anything-goes flexibility caricatured by opponents. The living Constitution is not an out-of-touch liberal theory, Strauss further shows, but a mainstream tradition of American jurisprudence--a common-law approach to the Constitution, rooted in the written document but also based on precedent. Each generation has contributed precedents that guide and confine judicial rulings, yet allow us to meet the demands of today, not force us to follow the commands of the long-dead Founders. Strauss explores how judicial decisions adapted the Constitution's text (and contradicted original intent) to produce some of our most profound accomplishments: the end of racial segregation, the expansion of women's rights, and the freedom of speech. By contrast, originalism suffers from fatal flaws: the impossibility of truly divining original intent, the difficulty of adapting eighteenth-century understandings to the modern world, and the pointlessness of chaining ourselves to decisions made centuries ago. David Strauss is one of our leading authorities on Constitutional law--one with practical knowledge as well, having served as Assistant Solicitor General of the United States and argued eighteen cases before the United States Supreme Court. Now he offers a profound new understanding of how the Constitution can remain vital to life in the twenty-first century.

Law’s Abnegation

Law’s Abnegation PDF Author: Adrian Vermeule
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674974719
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 208

Get Book

Book Description
Adrian Vermeule argues that the arc of law has bent steadily toward deference to the administrative state, which has greater democratic legitimacy and technical competence to confront issues such as climate change, terrorism, and biotechnology. The state did not shove lawyers and judges out of the way; they moved freely to the margins of power.

Is Eating People Wrong?

Is Eating People Wrong? PDF Author: Allan C. Hutchinson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139495275
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 261

Get Book

Book Description
Great cases are those judicial decisions around which the common law develops. This book explores eight exemplary cases from the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia that show the law as a living, breathing and down-the-street experience. It explores the social circumstances in which the cases arose and the ordinary people whose stories influenced and shaped the law as well as the characters and institutions (lawyers, judges and courts) that did much of the heavy lifting. By examining the consequences and fallout of these decisions, the book depicts the common law as an experimental, dynamic, messy, productive, tantalizing and bottom-up process, thereby revealing the diverse and uncoordinated attempts by the courts to adapt the law to changing conditions and shifting demands. Great cases are one way to glimpse the workings of the common law as an untidy but stimulating exercise in human judgment and social accomplishment.

Methods of Interpretation

Methods of Interpretation PDF Author: Lackland H. Bloom (Jr.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 604

Get Book

Book Description
Methods of Interpretation: How the Supreme Court Reads the Constitution examines the various methodologies the Supreme Court, and individual justices, have employed throughout history when interpreting the Constitution. Rather than attempting to set forth an overall theory of constitutional interpretation or plunge into the never ending scholarly debate over interpretative theory, Lackland H. Bloom focuses exclusively on what the Court and individual justices have done and said about constitutional interpretation in the course of deciding constitutional cases. He identifies many of the best, and a few of the worst, examples of particular interpretative methodologies, as well as the best examples of explicit discussions of constitutional interpretation by the Court and individual justices. Professor Bloom pays particular focus on the Supreme Court's approaches to constitutional interpretation since it is the Court that sets the standards. Although commentators may have the final word on what constitutional interpretation should be, he argues that the Court essentially has the final word on what it actually is.