In "Harmonizing Europe," Duina and his unique perspective facilitate his ability to do a splendid job of concentrating on the intricacies involved with the merger of Europe into one, more uniform, entity. His detailed analysis of the effects of equal pay and environmental issues on the EU is enlightening. As we move into an era of more political, economic, and social mergers between nations along the lines of NAFTA, ASEAN, CARICOM, etc, this book serves as a model for understanding these phenomenons.

It is not easy to understand a totally new experiment like the one putting together many States with so different racial and cultural background. There are no previous examples to use as reference. Duina decided to take a very detailed picture of a moment in the EU evolution. If we had more pictures like this, that would allow the assembly of a movie, the closest thing man has devised to link together actual information and time. The book is very clearly designed and assembled, an excellent example of normative science implementation.

ITS ABOUT TIME co-authored by Austin and Irwin, based on cutting edge research,
is the single most important book on the problems with American imprisonment. The authors use orginal research
to discuss the imprisonment binge, who goes to prison, imprisonment of children and women, private prisons,
doing time, super max, release, and three strikes and you're out. The book has been widely adopted for
both undergraduate and graduate courses at universities across the country. This is the book every lawmaker should read and consider before they vote to spend another dime of the taxpayers money on new prison construction. The research demonstrates that the dramatic increase in prison population is predicated on the imprisonment of individuals for petty crimes, drug offenses, and technical violations of probation and parole. Meanwhile, the inner-city schools of America are denied adequate funding, the streets are no safer, and millions of children wait for the parents to return home from prison.

At last I have found a book which takes a realistic look at the problems of crime and prison. I taught Texas inmates for eight years during the recent prison expansion. People were usually surprised when I told them how much I enjoyed teaching inmates. The longer I worked in prison, the more I became concerned about the misinformation, based on fear instead of fact, which the public had been receiving from the news media and politicians. In order for our society to survive, we must stop reacting emotionally and start thinking rationally about solutions which will make a lasting difference in a positive way. Prison expansion in the United States has cost taxpayers millions of dollars for the buildings alone. But the price in human terms is far greater. This book is essential reading for every citizen who is concerned about how our government is spending tax dollars. Lorna Rios

John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court written by R. Kent Newmyer is a biography about the fourth Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Marshall. This is not just an ordinary biography, but a biography with feeling, deep understanding andcomprehensive knowledge of Marshall.

This book is, by far, the most extraordinary biography, and paints a portrait of Chief Justice Marshall, the man, with perception and details , at the same time the author does an exhaustive biography of the jurisprudence of the Marshall Court.

John Marshall, (1801-1835) was appointed to the Supreme Court by John Adams as he was leaving office. A last minute appointment and second cousin to Thomas Jefferson, Marshall served in some of the most formative years that the has ever seen. Marshall wanted to bring the court into the central picture of the government and reigned in the court from the fringes of government, Consolidating the authority of the court making the Supreme Court the final arbitor when it came to constitutional.

John Marshall was a man equal to Jefferson when it came to the challenges of office and was equally skilled at the crafting law that supported the emerging American market economy. It was Jefferson and Marshall, however who symbolized and personalized the competing constitutional persuasions of the age and brought them into explosive focus. Each had taken a stand on the great foreign and domestic issues of the 1790's; each had conflated those issues into a dispute over the meaning of the Constitution. When fate and ambition made Jefferson president and Marshall chief justice, the institutional stage was set for what is one of the most creative confrontations in American constitutional history. At stake was not just the position of the Supreme Court in American government but the place of law in republican culture.

Can you imagine being there when Marshall was giving the oath of office to Jefferson... when the new chief justice administered the oath of office to the new president on March 4, 1801. With his hand on the Bible held by Marshall, Jefferson swore to uphold the Constitution, Marshall was sure sure he was about to destroy.

This book has an engaging narrative and you seem to read the information quickly and with ease, the author's prose is extremely well-written. As for the historical information it is spot-on even the court cases are found on a listing in the back of the book. Marshall was more than a chief justice, he was priciple in the forming a United States. Marshall's institutional accomplishments are found in this impressive study. For a one volume book... this is the most comprehensive... Marshall was the most representative figure in American law. This book is well worth the money ans should be in the library of all who study American History.

John Marshall, our nation's fourth Chief Justice, served from 1801 until 1835. He was appointed by President John Adams in one of the last and most significant acts of his administration.

Professor Kent Newmyer has written a comprehensive account of the great Chief Justice's career. The account is admirably researched and documented, drawing extensively on a new edition of Marshall's papers. It includes careful analyses of Marshall's leading opinions. Most importantly, Professor Newmyer gives a thoughtful discussion of Justice Marshall's place on the Court and on the importance of his vision of the United States for our history.

The book includes a good discussion of Marshall's role in the Revolutionary War, as a successful lawyer in Virginia, and as a landowner and extensive land speculator. But most of the book consists of a discussion of Marshall's career on the Court, his opinions, and the manner in which he shaped the Court as an institution.

While Newmyer admires his subject greatly, I found this a very balanced account. He allows that Justice Marshall did not always meet his own stated goals of separating law from politics and notes how Marshall's activities as a land speculator seemed to play a critical role in several of his leading opinions.

The discussion begins with Marbury v Madison and its role in the doctrine of judicial review. It continues with a thorough discussion of Marshall's role in the treason trial of Aaron Burr, through a discussion of the great opinions construing the Commerce Clause and Contracts Clause of the Constitution, through the Cherokee Nation opinions that Marshall wrote near the end of his tenure which established the foundation of American Indian Law. (Professor Newmyer considers these decisions Justice Marshall's proudest moment.)

The book considers Marshall's attitudes towards and opinions dealing with slavery. There is also a discussion of a series of polemical articles Justice Marshall exchanged with critics following the decision in McCollough v Maryland. Marshall's critics feared that he was giving too expansive a power to the National Government as opposed to the States. In fact, at the end of his career, Justice Marshall feared his life work had been overtaken by events with the rise of the democracy, a strong state rights movement, and the Presidency of Andrew Jackson.

Professor Newmyer sees Justice Marshall as a Burkean conservative in a new world. Marshall interpreted the Constitution broadly, yet flexibility to allow the development of individual, and national commerce and enterprise. Yet he was devoted to institutions and strongly inclined to accept the world as he found it rather than make it over in accordance with abstract principles (as he accused the supporters of the French Revolution of doing.) Newmyer writes:

Marshall spoke as a Burkean conservative, or as much of one as American circumstances allowed. He was repelled by reductionist abstractions as well as abstract idealims, even when it was couched, as was much of southern constitutionalism in terms of a mythical past. He worked from the 'given', accepted the world as it was, relished 'the disorder of experience" to borrow a phrase from Charles Rosen." (p.351)

Justice Marshall was not an original thinker, but he took the text of the Constitution, together with the Federalist, and molded it and the Court's interpretive role in a way that is with us today. He remains America's great Chief Justice. There is much for the interested reader to learn and to think through in Professor Newmyer's fine study of Justice Marshall.

Law for the Elephant is an incredibly well researched work that deserves much attention. If the myth of the lawless trail riders perpetuated by pulp fiction scribes yet infiltrated the ranks of professional historians up until the publication of this work, this book was their death knell.
Reid methodically debunks one of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of mid nineteenth century life on the Overland trail. His exhaustive use of primary sources and his meticulous notes must brand this book as the definitive work on the subject of property and social behavior on the overland trail from a legal perspective. The weight of evidence regarding the relative lawfulness of the travelers is such that, as presented, nearly half way through the reader is inexorably swayed to its veracity. Reid presents not a modicum or even generous amount of proof, but a crush of evidence. The fact that he was only able to locate three specific journal entries of lawlessness regarding property, while it does not suggest there was not more, is significantly persuasive. The fact that he is able to logically illustrate that these cases of lawlessness may be shown as examples of how legal theory and values were imbued within the lawbreakers, is doubly clever.
Although not a scintillating read, Reid displays a certain deftness for keeping the readers attention through what could have been far drier material in the hands of one not so gifted with the pen. His assemblage of innumerable primary sources is a praiseworthy accomplishment. Quotes from primary sources are woven consistently and seemingly effortlessly throughout the text, creating a patchwork of storytelling by case study.
This is not to say, however, that this is an entertaining read for laity or even the armchair historian. Reid occasionally slips into legalese that may momentarily obfuscate the read for even the professional historian, but a standard or legal dictionary remedies this. Also, Reid believes the average American on the trail possessed a greater knowledge of the law then than previously thought. Although this may be the case, some of what Reid chalks up to proof of extensive legal knowledge seems no more than ordinary common sense on behalf of the traveler. In a broader sense, to be fair, Reid does not delve deeply into criminality other than in regard to property. But, conventional wisdom suggests that the two are closely linked and thus, Reid obliquely strengthens his argument by this subtle correlation. These few minor criticisms notwithstanding, as a work of legal historical scholarship, Law for the Elephant is nearly flawless and is a significant contribution to the historiography of the overland trail.

The Overland Trail that spread to the gold fields of California and Oregon was a trying ordeal; it tested the will and endurance of the American character. The experience of the trail not only shaped America geographically, but socially, politically, and economically as well. The trail also shaped another American institution: law. Law and the Overland Trail is a topic that deserves greater study to determine charaterisitcs of the overland trail and the development of law in America. Law during antebellum America focused on capital speculation and corporate structure, and a bed of safe property law allowed corporate proliferation to occur. Reid examines inherent social and legal developments of the Overland Trail with great detail by examining a plethora of sources. He examines diaries, papers and other records for inferences to legal conduct. Reid explores the use of property law on the Overland Trail. He concludes that property law was something that was inherent to Americans in general, and not something forced upon them by corporate America (p. 335). The trail is unique in American legal history, because it shows how Americans administered law in a lawless land. Reid starts the book with general assumptions about the trail, emigrants and jurisprudence. He notes that the emigrant is a typical American: man women, child, old Young, ethnic, educated and uneducated. This mass of humanity seeking a new existence, in a place presented as a paradise, was not a lawless immoral group as legend, and some scholarship dictates. In assuming so, Reid states that, "Easily overlooked is the possibility that law could be the common denominator, explaining both the definitions people shared and the conduct they followed" (p. 10). Reid examines a common thread: property rights. The remainder of the book examines the interrelationships, uses, and behaviors associated with property and property rights. He notes that the creation, operation, and dissolution of joint stock ventures operated with a high degree of jurisprudence. An interesting aspect explored is the concept of ownership. Except for natural resources such as water, property was an abstract concept. Emigrants abandoned property as the hardships of the trial demanded, to avoid liabilities associated with traveling weight. Emigrants obtained supplies by barter, or by acquiring discarded property (p. 293). Reid notes that the transfer and handling of property, whether by and individual, or partnership was peaceful, and rarely was violence employed as a means of resolution (p. 341-54). Reid concludes by stating, "Instead, they respected the rights of property owners much as if still back east in the midst of plenty. By respect for their neighbor, and their neighbors property, they were, more than not, adhering to a morality of law" (p. 364). Law for the Elephant is an excellent macro interpretation of property, legal, and social relations of California gold rush emigrants. Another advantage the work provides us is an understanding of why current views of property came to be. The research is well covered, and the readability of the book is excellent. The book not only provides generalizations about law and the Overland Trail, but gives insight into how emigrants acted at the micro level as well.

This is a must read for those who appreciate interdisciplinary studies and want to understand the global economy, law, and politics. It offers an excellent balance; big enough to offer a lot of detail yet not too ponderous. Although it is very readable (not too technical), it's not a lap read.

This book is one of the best texts about international economic law. This book will help those who study international economic law to understand what is the legal problems of this world of globalization.

John Hagelin is an absolute genius: full ride to Harvard to study quantum physics; solved einstein's unified field theory; and discovered the ingredients for a perfect government. Some of this book is readable for the lay-man; much is not. I encourage to read this fascinating work, but note that much of the science and math presented is not understood by the average college-educated individual.

Premise: realign government so it is in harmony with natural law. Natural Law = planets fall around the sun, a ball thrown in the air will eventually come down. He says much of government currently goes against natural law (swimming upstream opposed to drifting downstream).

He gets into fascinating material, including: 1. the human mind has four levels of consciousness: awake, asleep, rem, pure consciousness. 2. everything in nature--while incredibly complex--when broken down to the simplest level, is the same. This unified field is called the superstring. 3. the human mind in pure consciousness is the same mathematically as the superstring.

John Hagelin is the Natural Law Party's presidential candidate. This guy is amazing; he deserves at least our attention. I wonder why people like John Hagelin and Harry Browne--true admirable american geniuses who run for President--are never covered by the major media...especially TV. More on that, read "A Reason To Vote" by Robert Roth.

Dr Hagelin is a courageous and original thinker. This book grows out of his monographs in the 1980s considering a possible connection between consciousness and the unified field of quantum field theory (his expertise), and out of his foray into public policy during his 1992 and 1996 Presidential bids.

What he's conceived is a unifying theory of politics, one based on the premise that government is itself governed by the collective consciousness of the people. Toward that end, he proposes establishing coherence creating groups of experts in Transcendental Meditation® as a foundation for positive social/political progress, and he presents the empirical basis of this novel approach. Then, he gives a summary of the latest field tested, proven knowledge in a variety of policy areas.

These issues include sustainable agriculture, preventive health care and natural medicine, effective crime prevention and rehabilitation, educational programs that keep children in school and develop their potential, renewable energy, and so on.

The key to this book is that it avoids fluff. It's not a New Age "feel good" tract, but rather a scientific and informed assessment of the latest thinking that can get our country and others working for the good of everyone. I'm not familiar with anything quite like it.

These books are wonderful for their total coverage of a case, from perpetration of the crime through appeals, with explanations. Our students use this series a lot. Very good black and white illustrations contained in the book, and I would recommend it to students, teachers, and parents.

awesom

Judge Noonan does not need to hide behind difficult-to-understand legalese in order to expose the Rehnquist Court's 5-4 judicial activism. The book puts a human face on the individuals whose rights have been ignored by a bare majority of justices who are more interested in protecting the "dignity" of the States than the dignity of the People -- though that concern for State "dignity" was not apparent when the same 5 justices decided Bush v. Gore. Any educated reader will easily understand Judge Noonan's description of the Rehnquist Court's outrageous activisim -- a critique all the more stinging becausae it comes from a Reagan-appointed judge who has never been accused of being a "liberal." As Judge Noonan observes, the 5 justices' "intepretation" of the Constitution seems more like an interpretation of the Articles of Confederation -- a document that failed to provide for an effective and independant federal government, thereby requiring enactment of the Constitution in order to preserve the United States. Highly recommended for all -- but especially recommended for lawyers and law students, who need to understand this revolutionary return to the properly discredited States Rights movement.

Narrowing the Nation's Power: The Supreme Court Sides with the States written by John T. Noonan, Jr. is a book about the current Supreme Court and the 11th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

What I found interesting is that the author writes in a style that is easily understood and the book is well-documented as he explains how the Supreme Court is swaying toward the States vs. Federal in its thinking. This is an age old debate whether to be more States Rights of Federal in thinking and to interpretation of the law. Ever since the government of the United States has been formed this debate has been around.

Does the Supreme Court systematically thwart justice to American through a states rights policy? The author makes a strong case and backs his judgement with case studies.

This book takes complex legal doctrine and makes it enjoyable to read. To better understand the laws of the land we have the courts and the final say rests with the Supreme Court. The book explains some of these cases... states' immunity in age discrimination, disability discrimination, and violation of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and fair labor... insulation from paying damages, are just a few of the case torts reviewed in this book.

The lawyer-ese is at a minimum so the layperson can get a good idea as to what and the why things are as they are. So, if you like reading about the laws that affect our daily lives this is a good book to start with.

John Taylor's " New Views of the Consitution of The United States" is a brilliant refutation of the Federalist and strong central government. Taylor, the most articulate exponent of Jeffersonian Republicanism, is at his finest here. In New Views he refutes the doctrines of Madison and Hamilton in the Fedrealist which declare the United States to be a " consolidated nation" and having a supreme national government, instead of a federal one. He points out the contridictions of the authors of the Federalist, and de-mystifies it's hold on the interpretation of the Constitution. He also destroys the arguement that the Supreme Court has the exclusive right to " interpret" the Constitution and has the final word. He outlines a Jeffersonian view of limited government, and it's role in a federal republic. His predictions of civil war and geographical
domination of one section of the union over the other are prophetic. Anyone who believes in states rights, republicanism, and democracy should read New Views. This friend of Thomas Jefferson deserves the look. He espouses pure Jeffersonian Reoublicanism.

New Views of The Constitution, by John Taylor is one of the best reads from the early 1800's on the issue of democracy and the constitution. I have an original first edition and it is one of my most prized books. Read it, if you can find it, and you to will have a new found respect for the development of our great nation's history of democracy.

I read 55 books in 1973 and this volume on marriage cases in Church courts was the best of the 55. It carefully examines 6 marriage cases. Reading this book made me wish I were a canon lawyer!

John Noonan, now a prominent judge on the federal Circuit Court of Appeals, was also for many years a respected scholar of canon law history. This work, based on Noonan's direct study of Vatican archives, caused quite stir upon its publication in 1972, by painting an accurate, if not entirely flattering, picture of the complex canonical process by which, prior to the Second Vatican Council, Catholic marriage cases were adjudicated. The work is respectful of canonical tradition and, in my opinion, basically wanted only to see a franker admission by some canonical judges that adjudicating marriage cases is as much an art as it is a science.