Legal Research

This Week's Highlighted Acquisitions

Kimball, Bruce A. The inception of modern professional education : C.C. Langdell, 1826-1906. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c2009. Call number: KF368.L36 K56 2009

Publisher's Description:
Christopher C. Langdell (1826-1906) is one of the most influential figures in the history of American professional education. As dean of Harvard Law School from 1870 to 1895, he conceived, designed, and built the educational model that leading professional schools in virtually all fields subsequently emulated. In this first full-length biography of the educator and jurist, Bruce Kimball explores Langdell's controversial role in modern professional education and in jurisprudence.

Langdell founded his model on the idea of academic meritocracy. According to this principle, scholastic achievement should determine one's merit in professional life. Despite fierce opposition from students, faculty, alumni, and legal professionals, he designed and instituted a formal system of innovative policies based on meritocracy. This system's components included the admission requirement of a bachelor's degree, the sequenced curriculum and its extension to three years, the hurdle of annual examinations for continuation and graduation, the independent career track for professional faculty, the transformation of the professional library into a scholarly resource, the inductive pedagogy of teaching from cases, the organization of alumni to support the school, and a new, highly successful financial strategy.

Langdell's model was subsequently adopted by leading law schools, medical schools, business schools, and the schools of other professions. By the time of his retirement as dean of Harvard Law School, Langdell had instituted the future model for professional education throughout the United States.

Brabandere, Eric de. Post-conflict administrations in international law : international territorial administration, transitional authority and foreign occupation in theory and practice.
Leiden ; Boston : Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2009. Call number: KZ3673 .B73 2009

Publisher's Description:
The concept of international administrations of territory, in which comprehensive administrative powers are exercised by, on behalf of or with the agreement of the United Nations has recently re-emerged in the context of reconstructing (parts of) states after conflict. Although in Kosovo and East Timor, the UN was endowed with wide-ranging executive and legislative powers, in the subsequent operations in Afghanistan it was decided, to principally rely on local capacity with minimal international participation, and in Iraq, administrative power was exercised by the occupying powers. The objectives are however very similar.

This work first delineates the origins of the granting of administrative functions to international actors, and analyses the context in which it has resurfaced, namely post-conflict peace-building or reconstruction. Secondly, the book methodically establishes the legal framework applicable to post-conflict administrations and peace-building operations, by taking into account the post-conflict scenario in which they operate. Based on these two analyses, an enquiry into the practice of the reconstruction processes in Kosovo, East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq is undertaken, to analyse and understand the influence of the international legal framework and the different approaches on the implementation of the mandates. Finally, the book concludes with an analysis of questions on exit strategies, local ownership, the internationalisation of domestic institutions, and the need for a comprehensive approach towards post-conflict reconstruction.

Dow, David R. America's prophets : how judicial activism makes America great.
Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 2009. Call number: KF5130 .D69 2009

Publisher's Description:
America's Prophets: How Judicial Activism Makes America Great fills a major void in the popular literature by providing a thorough definition and historical account of judicial activism and by arguing that it is a method of prophetic adjudication which is essential to preserving American values. Dow confounds the allegation of the Christian right that judicial activism is legally and morally unsound by tracing the roots of American judicial activism to the methods of legal and moral interpretation developed by the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. He claims that Isaiah, Amos, and Jesus are archetypal activist judges and, conversely, that modern activist judges are America's prophets. Dow argues that judicial restraint is a priestly method of adjudication and that it, not judicial activism, is the legally and morally unsound method.

Race and gender discrimination, separation of church and state, privacy rights, and same-sex marriage are all issues that have divided our nation and required judicial intervention. Every time the courts address a hot-button issue and strike down entrenched bias or bigotry, critics accuse the justices of being judicial activists, whose decisions promote their personal biases and flout constitutional principles. This term, despite its widespread currency as a pejorative, has never been rigorously defined. Critics of judicial activism properly point out that when judges overturn laws that enforce popular norms they thwart the will of the majority. But Dow argues that so-called activist judges uphold two other American legal values that are as deeply embedded in American legal culture as majoritarianism: liberty andequality. He challenges the notion that judicial activism is unprincipled, and he provides a vocabulary and historical context for defending progressive decisions.

With roots in the biblical prophets, judicial activism is a contemporary method of legal interpretation whereby judges base their decisions not on what they personally believe, but instead on the fundamental American values of liberty and equality.

Witte, John. The sins of the fathers : the law and theology of illegitimacy reconsidered.
Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2009. Call number: K702 .W58 2009

Publisher's Description:
For nearly two millennia, Western law visited the sins of fathers and mothers upon their illegitimate children, subjecting them to systematic discrimination and deprivation. The graver the sins of their parents, the further these children fell in social standing and legal protection. While some reformers have sought to better the plight of illegitimate children, only in recent decades has illegitimacy lost its full legal sting. Yet the social, economic, and psychological costs of illegitimacy still remain high even in the liberal, affluent West.

Full post as published by LexLibris on June 29, 2009 (boomark / email).