Mr. Rembar has created, if you can believe it, an engaging history of the Anglo-American legal system. He has done a superlative job of making the development of writs and other legal tools of the legal system we know today into a highly readable text which will appeal to those outside of the profession, as well as to practitioners. Using the last known duel to occur in the United States, Mr. Rembar develops the concept of trial by battle into an explication of how our legal system came to be as it is. He shows how and why this archaic legal concept has fallen into disfavor and explains why the paradigm shifts have occured. His use of the reign of Henry II of England as an exemplar of legal innovation is entralling and gives a new insight into the lives and processes that stood at the inception of our law courts and all their minions. This book is currently my top recommendation to anyone who reads history for pleasure.

Attorney Rembar is the counsel who successfully defended (mildly erotic by today's standards) literature before the Supreme Court. This work is a fascinating study of the history of law and a fine advocate's perspective of the western legal tradition from its British origins through modern statutory and regulatory systems.

The book opens with a man eaten by a tiger. Rembar then uses a Zen-like analysis of the man and tiger as the introduction to his unique perspective on the evolution and application of the law. A fine, fine effort from the author of The Death of Obscenity.