American Bar Foundation Book Notes Source: Law & Social Inquiry, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Summer, 2006), pp. 785-793 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Bar Foundation Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4092726 . Accessed: 16/06/2014 09:02 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Wiley and American Bar Foundation are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Law &Social Inquiry. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.34.78.81 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:02:02 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Transcript
American Bar Foundation
Book NotesSource: Law & Social Inquiry, Vol. 31, No. 3 (Summer, 2006), pp. 785-793Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Bar FoundationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4092726 .
Accessed: 16/06/2014 09:02
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Wiley and American Bar Foundation are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toLaw &Social Inquiry.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 195.34.78.81 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:02:02 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
RIGHTS/EQUALITY UNDER LAW......................... .... .............................
786 CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND SOCIAL CONTROL .............. ...................... .. 787 CAPITAL PUNISHMENT ...................... ..................................... 788
LEGAL PROCESS .............................................
U.S. SUPREME COURT .......... ........................ ..................... 789 U.S. COURTS AND CONGRESS ........................................... 790
SOCIOLEGAL THEORY .. ...............................................................
...................... 791 CONSTITUTIONAL THEORY AND HISTORY ........................................ 791
LAW AND POPULAR CULTURE .............................................. 791 LAW AND FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS ................... ... ..................... 792
LAW AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ............................................... ............................. 792
LAW AND LABOR ......................................... 792
Haggerty, Kevin D., and Richard V. Ericson, eds. The New Politics of Surveillance and Visibility. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 2006. Pp. vii + 386. $80.00 cloth; $40.00 paper.
This collection of essays focuses on the extension of surveillance since September 11 and the role of technology in facilitating the monitoring of suspect populations. The authors connect surveillance with the popularity of entertainment forms like reality television, where participants are constantly on camera, and with "data mining" and the commodification of consumer preference information. The chapters are grouped into three sections-theory, military and police surveillance, and consumer culture and electronic media. The overall focus is on the effects of surveillance on democratic accountability and the blurring of the distinction between public and private space.
Krotoszynski Jr., Ronald J. The First Amendment in Cross-Cultural Perspective: A Com- parative Analysis of the Freedom of Speech. New York: NYU Press, 2006. Pp. xvi + 299. $50.00.
This book considers free speech in the United States and other industrial democracies, arguing that American scholars could benefit from a comparative perspective. Com- paring Canada, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom, Krotoszynski argues that free speech is not a universal concept but culturally situated within legal structures. He discusses a number of constitutional law free speech tests, such as Holocaust denial in Germany, obscene literature trials in Japan, and anti-Americanism in Canada, and concludes that while free speech has no universal definition outside of constitutional text, it is an essential component of democratic self-government.
RIGHTS/EQUALITY UNDER LAW
Ancheta, Angelo. Scientific Evidence and Equal Protection of the Law. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006. Pp. xiii + 190. $23.95.
Examining court cases on inequality, this volume looks at the tensions between equality before the law and the use of science in the courtroom. Ancheta discusses landmark cases such as Brown but also lesser-known cases that deal with statistical evidence of discrimination or DNA testing in criminal defense. He argues that for most of American history, scientific rhetoric legitimated inequality but that the recent use of science to guarantee equal protection brings its own controversies; for example, in equal protection cases, the Court is not incorporating scientific evidence systematically but is holding government redistribution programs to a higher evidentiary standard to comply with strict scrutiny.
Middleton, Stephen. The Black Laws: Race and the Legal Process in Early Ohio. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2005. Pp. xi + 363. $59.95 cloth; $26.95 paper.
Starting its story in 1787, this book examines the legal tensions between blacks and whites in Ohio, which led to the passage of the Black Laws in 1803-laws that, among other things, obstructed black migration and limited black testimony against whites in court. Middleton employs a range of archival sources to investigate Ohio's role as both a destination for fugitive slaves and free blacks, and a destination for Southern and Eastern whites seeking land and prosperity. He uses court cases, newspaper accounts, political outcomes, and diaries and correspondence to discuss the origins of and challenges to the Black Laws, through their mitigation in 1849 and repeal in 1886.
This content downloaded from 195.34.78.81 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:02:02 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Wang, Lu-in. Discrimination by Default: How Racism Becomes Routine. New York: NYU Press, 2006. Pp. xii + 186. $40.00.
Wang argues that much racism and discrimination occurs by default in the same way that default computer settings become internalized as a baseline standard. The book explores the social psychological dimensions of racism, drawing on the theories of situational effects, self-fulfilling prophecies, and norm theories. It then focuses on dis- crimination in health care as a case study, finds that current legal punishments for discrimination fail to recognize that most racism is by default, and suggests paths for institutions and individuals to interrupt the default of discrimination.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND SOCIAL CONTROL
Godoy, Angelina Snodgrass. Popular Injustice: Violence, Community and Law in Latin America. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006. Pp. xvii + 233. $50.00 cloth; $19.95 paper.
This book examines the movement in Guatemala for "mano dura," or "the hard hand"- highly punitive forms of social control, such as the reintroduction of the death penalty and support for vigilantism and lynching. Drawing on interview data, Godoy argues that public acts of violence demonstrate not only public frustration about crime but the change in community structure caused by long periods of state violence and the macro-level changes brought by globalization. She argues that the Left is weakened by mano dura and the focus on law and order, stifling the possibilities of other reforms.
Harcourt, Bernard. Language of the Gun: Youth, Crime and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Pp. xiii + 278. $55.00 cloth; $25.00 paper.
Drawing on an interview-based study of young men in the Catalina Mountain School- an all-male correctional school in the Arizona desert-this book attempts to understand youth gun violence. Harcourt explores the meanings of guns to the young offenders; offers an assessment and critique of theories of crime, law, and public policy; and imbeds these analyses in an extensive methodological discussion of interpretive research.
Herbert, Steve. Citizens, Cops, and Power: Recognizing the Limits of Community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. Pp. x + 180. $40.00 cloth; $16.00 paper.
Herbert argues that initiatives that aim to strengthen ties between neighborhoods and police departments, such as community policing, are popular but usually ineffective. Employing mixed methods-including interviews with residents in Seattle, observations of police procedure, and attendance at community-police meetings-the book explores the divisions, such as class and homeownership status, that make the ideal of community policing difficult to attain and maintain in high-crime neighborhoods. He concludes that the elements of community, which primarily interest social theorists, are less important to community members, who have more pragmatic hopes.
Manza, Jeff, and Christopher Uggen. Locked Out: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Pp. xiv + 359. $29.95.
Using a variety of data on elections, imprisonment and crime rates, this book examines the effects of felon disenfranchisement on elections and on the constitution of Congress and state legislatures. Manza and Uggen also analyze public opinion toward imprison- ment and re-enfranchisement (in a chapter with Clem Brooks) and discuss the U.S. situation in international perspective. They give particular attention to the historical development of state laws restricting felon voting and use counterfactual analysis to consider the effects.
This content downloaded from 195.34.78.81 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:02:02 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Shuy, Roger W. Creating Language Crimes: How Law Enforcement Uses (and Misuses) Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Pp. xiv + 194. $29.95.
This book examines the role of linguistic evidence in criminal investigations. Shuy argues that linguistic evidence is often equally as significant as physical evidence, but does not receive the same level of scrutiny and skepticism. After an overview of conversation strategies and "language crimes," most of the book consists of case studies of trials that involved either cooperating witnesses or undercover/camouflaged police, covering murder, bribery, fraud, and other crimes. The book concludes that police and authorities frequently manipulate language to induce confessions or highlight the potential guilt of the accused.
Slobogin, Christopher. Minding Justice: Laws That Deprive People with Mental Disability of Life and Liberty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006. Pp. x + 396. $49.95.
This book argues for a revision of the insanity defense, claiming the current legal doctrine is based on a misunderstanding of the impairments and reality of mental illness. Slobogin analyzes prominent cases-such as the Unabomber and the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan-where the insanity defense was invoked, and concludes with a series of recommendations, including the abolition of capital punishment for the mentally ill and reform of laws concerning competency to stand trial and refuse psychiatric treatment.
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Vandiver, Margaret. Lethal Punishment: Lynchings and Legal Executions in the South. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006. Pp. xii + 284. $27.95.
This book explores why some offenses in the postbellum South led to lynching, while others resulted in legally administered death penalties or imprisonment. Vandiver offers a three-region comparison of lynching and legal execution in rural Northwestern Ten- nessee, Shelby County (containing Memphis) and Marion County, Florida (containing the city of Ocala). Using comparative case studies, she explores the interplay between legal and nonlegal trials and procedure, and the connection between social control, race, and place. The book concludes by connecting the argument to latter-day death penalty debates about race and inconsistent procedure.
LEGAL PROCESS
Tyler, Tom, ed. Procedural Justice. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005. 2 vols. Pp. xxiii + 1074. $500.00.
Tyler's collection contains forty-nine reprinted articles on procedural justice-beginning with Thibault and Walker's pioneering 1975 study and tracing the literature up to 2004-and includes empirical studies of procedural justice in the United States, South Africa, Canada, Germany, and Japan. The material is drawn from the law and society literature as well as from studies in psychology, sociology, political science, and management. The two-volume set also contains theoretical essays, an introduction by the editor, and a concluding section of research that is critical of the mainstream procedural justice perspective.
This content downloaded from 195.34.78.81 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:02:02 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Epstein, Lee, and Jeffrey A. Segal. Advice and Consent: The Politics of Judicial Appointments. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. vii + 180. $23.00.
Epstein and Segal argue that the U.S. Supreme Court appointment process has always been politicized, and that current heated arguments over nominations are actually unsurprising in historical context. They analyze the relationship between presidential ideology and judicial appointments, finding that most, but not all, Supreme Court judges match the President's ideology in their votes. They conclude with suggestions for reform of the appointment process.
Scherer, Nancy. Scoring Points: Politicians, Activists, and the Lower Federal Court Appointment Process. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005. Pp. x + 272. $65.00 cloth; $24.95 paper.
This work aims to explain why the lower court appointment process in the U.S. federal judiciary has become so politicized. Using data about judicial decision making since the Depression, Scherer argues that party-polarized voting in the lower federal courts was uncommon until the late 1960s. She develops a theory of elite mobilization, arguing that changes in political parties and legal conceptions of individual rights during the 1950s and 1960s led to a new form of judicial appointment. Politicians had previously used the lower courts as a patronage appointment, but subsequently shifted their focus to policy-orientation over party loyalty, which generated partisan conflict and polarized voting in lower courts.
U.S. SUPREME COURT
Domnarski, William. The Great Justices 1941-54: Black, Douglas, Frankfurter and Jackson in Chambers. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006. Pp. xiii + 206. $35.00.
This book examines the lives of four U.S. Supreme Court justices appointed in the Roosevelt era, devoting one chapter each to the careers of Hugo Black, William Douglas, Felix Frankfurter, and Robert Jackson. Domnarski documents the political feuds, family lives, and rivalries of the jurists, along with their working lives, reading habits, and ambitions. He also explores the tension between political ideologies and realities of life on the bench, touching on seminal cases such as Brown v. Board of Education. The book includes detailed tables of the voting patterns of the four judges.
Hansford, Thomas G., and James E Spriggs II. The Politics of Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006. Pp. xii + 155. $29.95.
Hansford and Spriggs analyze the U.S. Supreme Court's interpretation of precedents, arguing that an interaction between policy goals and the legal authoritativeness of precedent drives the interpretations of the Court. They evaluate all Supreme Court uses of precedent from 1946 to 1999 and test their hypotheses, employing an event history model to analyze the likelihood of precedent being overruled in the future and also analyzing majority opinions and responses by lower federal courts. They conclude that precedent must be understood as both a constraint on justices and an opportunity to change social outcomes with the law.
This content downloaded from 195.34.78.81 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:02:02 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Geyh, Charles Gardner. When Courts and Congress Collide: The Struggle for Control of America's Judicial System. Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press, 2006. Pp. xii + 332. $29.95.
Beginning with the constitutional convention and the origins of American government, and proceeding to recent U.S. Supreme Court cases like Bush v. Gore, this book traces the tension between Congress and an independent judiciary. Geyh argues that the relationship between the two branches is a "dynamic equilibrium" that balances Con- gress' attempts to control courts and traditional respect for judicial autonomy. He draws on cases, secondary literature, and Senate hearings to examine relationships between Congress and courts, such as appointments and impeachment, and concludes that a dynamic equilibrium defines the limits of judicial independence more than constitutional questions of separation of powers.
LEGAL PROFESSION
Felstiner, William L. E, ed. Reorganisation and Resistance: Legal Professions Confront a Changing World. Oxford, UK: Hart Publishing, 2006. Pp. x + 358. $70.00.
Felstiner's collection includes contributions from well-known scholars of the legal pro- fession and from younger and international scholars. Through case studies addressing nine countries, and one dealing with South America as a whole, the research investigates the changing role of the legal profession since the 1980s, with a focus on how structural and demographic changes have affected the profession and initiated reorganization of work. The general theme is the tension between change and retrenchment, such as the advancement of women and minorities in the legal profession even while resistance to such advancement persists.
P rez-Perdomo, Rogelio. Latin American Lawyers: A Historical Introduction. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2006. Pp. ix + 171. $50.00.
This volume discusses the legal professions of twenty Latin American countries over the past several hundred years. P rez-Perdomo emphasizes the Roman roots of con- temporary Latin American law, the role of lawyers in politics, and the influence of custom and social stratification upon the legal profession. He combines quantitative data on lawyers and law students with research on diverse topics, such as the content of legal education, the early civil codes of Latin America, and the role of the courts and the legal profession in globalization and development since World War II.
Schleef, Debra. Managing Elites: Professional Socialization in Law and Business Schools. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006. Pp. xi + 243. $75.00 cloth; $26.95 paper.
Schleef uses interviews with JD and MBA students to explore the socialization of students training for elite professions. She argues that students resist conventional routes to success, such as large firm practice and consulting, but ultimately end up in these "jobs of least resistance." She highlights the tension between individual and collectivity, and between competing and cooperating, which marks the students' experiences, and notes that students tend to develop a cynical outlook on their education, which they see as both arcane and minimally practical. To join an elite profession, she says, is to reconcile the paradoxical ideals of their field as both elite and egalitarian.
This content downloaded from 195.34.78.81 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:02:02 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Perez, Oren, and Gunther Teubner, eds. Paradoxes and Inconsistencies in the Law. Oxford, UK: Hart Publishing, 2006. Pp. x + 322. $60.00.
This edited volume examines legal paradoxes and their social impact from a variety of scholarly perspectives, employing literature from cultural studies, economics, philosophy, and systems theory. The book examines both general paradoxes of law as a system and more specific inconsistencies in the laws of human rights, contracts, and euthanasia. The authors investigate the role of inconsistency as an engine of legal change, with discussions of alternative dispute resolution and discrimination, focusing particular attention on Israel as a case study. The essays also explore how the law main- tains and reproduces itself in the face of its own paradoxes.
CONSTITUTIONAL THEORY AND HISTORY
Dinan, John J. The American State Constitution Tradition. Lawrence: Kansas University Press, 2006. Pp. ix + 430. $35.00.
This work attempts to broaden the study of constitutions by studying the U.S. state constitutions, from the first post-Independence documents to Louisiana's 1992 consti- tution. Dinan argues that unlike the national constitution, state constitution authors have been much more specific, especially in designating positive rights enforced by the government. Also, states have rejected strict requirements for amending the con- stitution, taken greater interest in shaping the character of citizens through prohibitions on vice, and debated and occasionally rejected the idea of a bicameral legislature. The book concludes that the study of state constitutional debates is in many ways a better reflection of the attitudes of constitution makers.
LAW AND POPULAR CULTURE
Best, Joel. Flavor of the Month: Why Smart People Fall for Fads. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Pp. xi + 201. $19.95.
This book examines fads in management, education, psychology, and criminal justice that promise pathbreaking results but often are discarded after a short period. Best emphasizes "the joy of joining," where participation in institutional fads can be fun and self-reinforcing. Contrasting fads with true diffusion of innovations, he breaks down the three stages of a fad--emerging, surging, and purging. The book discusses examples, such as trends in mathematics and reading education and the rise and fall of total quality management in business, and concludes with suggestions on how to protect institutions from fads that may be harmful.
Kamir, Orit. Framed: Women in Law and Film. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006. Pp. xix + 324. $84.95 cloth; $23.95 paper.
Kamir examines twelve films dealing with law and women, from black-and-white classics up to more recent Hollywood fare and also European and Japanese cinema. She focuses on the judgment of women who attack abusive men, and the construction of culpability and innocence. The analysis combines central legal concepts and definitions, such as rape, self-defense, and provocation, with insights from postmodernism, film studies, and the social sciences. The book also offers a feminist critique that questions "cinematic
This content downloaded from 195.34.78.81 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:02:02 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
realism," outlining a feminist approach to law and film that highlights the importance of honor and dignity.
LAW AND FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
Hull, Kathleen E. Same-Sex Marriage: The Cultural Politics of Love and Law. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Pp. xv + 277. $75.00 cloth; $29.99 paper.
Using data from over seventy interviews with same-sex couples in the United States, this book argues that couples use the rituals associated with the legal dimensions of marriage, such as public commitment ceremonies, to affirm and solidify relationships that lack legal recognition. Hull emphasizes the cultural importance of law as a state- ment of social norms and the bounds of society's acceptance of difference. She also discusses the legal developments from U.S. Supreme Court cases, such as Bowers v. Hardwick, to the Defense of Marriage Act and other legislation. The book includes a timeline of same-sex marriage legal developments from 1971 to 2005.
LAW AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
Scholtz, Christa. Negotiating Claims: The Emergence of Indigenous Land Claim Negotiation Politics in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. New York: Routledge, 2006. Pp. viii + 259. $85.00.
Drawing on interviews with policymakers and on the national archives of four Anglophone countries (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States), Scholtz explores the politics of how these countries committed to long-term negotiation of indigenous land claims. She argues that negotiation is only one possible government policy, and that the timing of Native political mobilization is the crucial explanatory variable: if indigenous people mobilize before a judicial decision, negotiation policies are more likely to emerge; if mobilization only occurs after judicial decisions, negotiation is less likely.
LAW AND LABOR
Conaghan, Joanne, and Kerry Rittich, eds. Labour Law, Work, and Family. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Pp. xiv + 361. $95.00.
Conaghan and Rittich's collection focuses on labor law in the context of the balance between work and family. The chapters address labor law and family provisions in Australia, Japan, Hungary, the European Union, and the United States, among others. In addition to exploring the move toward family-friendly workplace policies, the essays address the structural changes in work caused by globalization processes. The largest section of the book, "Reimagining the Worker," addresses changes in the constitution and regulation of work and workers, especially in the domestic realm. The book con- cludes with a synthetic essay on labor law and the gender equity movement.
This content downloaded from 195.34.78.81 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:02:02 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Lochlann Jain, Sarah S. Injury: The Politics of Product Design and Safety Law in the United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006. Pp. xiii + 214. $55.00 cloth; $19.95 paper.
Lochlann Jain explores the limits of product safety laws and the role of law in con- structing Americans' relationship to consumer products. In case studies ranging from cigarettes to typewriters to automobile airbags, she discusses the law's role in establishing product safety and its imperfect ability to offer redress for worker and consumer injuries. She concludes that American injury law is central in rationalizing the distribution of costs and the inevitable harm caused by many consumer products.
LAW AND TRUSTS
King, Samuel P., and Randall W. Roth. Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement and Political Manipulation at America's Largest Charitable Trust. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2006. Pp. xi + 324. $26.00 cloth; $16.00 paper.
This book reports on corruption in America's largest charitable trust, the estate of a Hawai'ian princess valued at more than $10 billion and controlling more than 10 percent of all land in Hawai'i. The authors, who were involved in the litigation, detail a 1997 investigation and subsequent court proceedings that revealed mismanagement in the administration of the trust. King and Roth begin with Princess Pauahi Bishop's reign in nineteenth century Hawai'i and the founding and development of the Kamahameha schools, the main beneficiary of the trust. The book employs extensive newspaper sources and also new data such as meeting minutes and judicial correspondence in explicating the legal outcomes and political fallout.
This content downloaded from 195.34.78.81 on Mon, 16 Jun 2014 09:02:02 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
