Law Books

I never encountered a less useful book during all my three long years at law school. Do youself a favor and buy a companion guide- nutshell or something.

You will most likely not buy this book for fun but because your 1st year law professor tells you to. Most parts of the book are very dry and it takes a long time to read it properly. The cases are good, standard Tort cases. The most helpful explanations can be found in the Notes and Questions. While the book is dry bordering on boring, the Notes and Questions at the end of each chapter will give you a much better understanding of the information. Franklin and Rabin deal with physical injuries, non-physical harm, causation, trespass and liability.

Not a great reference book, which it doesn't pretend to be. Very much a standard text book to be used for first year Tort Law.

Particularly when compared to the classic Prosser & Keaton, it is pretty clear that this text is geared toward tort "reform." There are long excerpts from law review articles written by the authors (how modest.) Conservative points of view are offered without "alternatives." The history of torts in the common law is rather distorted, particularly regarding strict liability which these authors present like it is a surprising new invention. The Products Restatement is overemphasized. And too many cases that come out aberrantly for the defense are included. If nothing else deters you from registering for the class that uses this book, consider how you would feel about a book called "Tax Law and Alternatives" or "Contract Law and Alternatives." This is law school folks. The alternatives are Med School and B-School. As long as you're in law school please try to find out what the law is. What somebody thinks it should be is all well and good, but it is not helpful to present "alternatives" as thought they are the current state of tort law.

This is an utterly brilliant book that has held my attention all morning. Although the authors do not integrate the thinking in the ten books below, I am totally, deeply, impressed by their intelligence, knowledge, and good intention.

They set out to develop understanding in five areas:

1. What State needs to do
2. How international community can help
3. How timelines and interdependencies should define sequencing
4. Why one size does NOT fit all
5. Why we must accept our shared responsibility and recognize the need for both proactive intervention, and coproduction (and sharing) of wealth.

I started with the endnotes and index, which is where I begin the most intelligent books in my reading program. I immediately detected the gaps that I address with the ten annotated links, but I was also immediately won over in seeing their appreciation for the report of the High Level Threat Panel of the UN, for Singapore under Lee Kwan Yew, for the balanced score card approach (some call for a triple bottom line), for Paul Collier's focus on the bottom billion, for Paul Hawkin's et al on natural capitalism.

Within the notes, I was shocked to learn that it has been reported that the United Nations deprived Afghanistan of the first two and a half years of all donor contribution, "by agreement" with US Government and World Bank. Since one of the author's has served as Finance Minister in Afghanistan, not only do I believe this--it must never happen again.

I find in this book one of the most original, refreshing, relevant, and therefore essential reviews on the matter of the State. Although the author's do not cite McIver, the original master on the origins and functions of the state, I consider them to be the new thought leaders and essential to any discussion of how to improve the inter-relationships among the eight tribes of governance: states, militaries, law enforcement authorities, academics, businesses, media, non-governmental organizations, and civil society including labor unions and religions. They are wrong-headed in thinking that "only sovereign states...will allow human progress to continue," and that "illegitimate networks will not be conquered except through hierarchical organizations," but in no way does this diminish the extreme importance of their deep thinking on the role of the state and the need to change both our concepts of sovereignty and our rules of the road for international organizations.

A useful early idea is that of the "double compact" between the country leadership and the international community on the one hand, and with the citizens on the other. It becomes obvious very quickly that corruption in government service is the single cancer that must be removed before states can achieve legitimacy and efficacy.

The authors have many gifted turns of phrase to include "harnessing our collective energies and readjusting to emerging patterns."

The authors recognize early on that legitimacy comes from below, from citizens, and must be earned.

I am not going to summarize each chapter, but I want to point readers toward the Army War College Strategy Conference, just concluded, on "Rebalancing the Instruments of National Power." I have posted both 29 pages of notes and an 8-page draft article for the Joint Forces Quarterly. Singapore got it early and is the world's first "smart nation." They understood early on that education powers economics, economics powers security, and so on.

Today, the authors document ably, stewardship of the environment, respect for social entrepreneurship, fair trade, and innovation in applying information technology to create wealth are all coming to the fore with honest leaders.

They identify five aspects of the networked world that are of note:

1. Framework for balancing activities of diverse stakeholders
2. Rule of law at a strategic level, with freedom of action at a tactical level (not quite true in the USA where the corrupt federal Congress establishes federal CEILINGS for regulatory action).
3. Massive investment--one reads repeatedly of the glut of money available for emerging markets (and I would add, the absence of both commercial intelligence and co-investment planning with charitable foundations)
4. World is evolving according to open systems (super point, see my keytone briefing to Gnomedex 2008, "Open Everything."
5. World is finally starting to evolve past rote memorization and toward recognizing patterns (the adaptive complex system and panarchy literature covers this well).

In the middle of the book they have six themes, each developed in a manner that makes this book quite valuable for any library, personal or organizational.

1. Conflict causes polarization of identities *and* ungovernability of aid subject to black market rules.
2. Peacemaking has been geared to compromise rather than strategic planning for a long-term outcome
3. This means that state dysfunctionality is highest immediately after the peace accord.
4. Even if civil war does not break out, cost of failed politics and poor policies is immense.
5. Lack of money is not the driver for poverty, but rather corrupt politics that enrich the few at the expense of the many.
6. Dysfunctional states spawn the rise and spread of networks of criminality and wealth confiscation instead of networks of social wealth creation and sharing.

The book concludes with "A New Agenda for State Building"

1. International compacts
2. Sovereignty strategy
3. Shared rules of the game
4. Mobilization of resources (this would be better titled harmonization of resources--we need Global Range of Gifts Tables for every country down to the village hut level, online, updated by national call centers
4. New leadership styles--this is a superb overview of what it takes to migrate from industrial era pyramidal leadership to Epoch B swarm leadership (see the image I am loading above).
5. Reflexive monitoring at every step of the implementation process
6. Double compact in practice

The final two chapters focus on national programs, and in conclusion, on "Collective Power."

I put the book down feeling GREAT. This book is a seminal reference.

Now for ten books (and my reviews) that round out this one book:
The Health of Nations: Society and Law beyond the State
High Noon 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them
Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Third Edition
The leadership of civilization building: Administrative and civilization theory, symbolic dialogue, and citizen skills for the 21st century
Global Assemblages: Technology, Politics, and Ethics as Anthropological Problems
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Updated Edition
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

This is an important, easy-to-understand look at why rebuilding failing states should be the at the top of our country's priority list. The authors provide clear cut examples of why previous efforts to curb corruption and terrorism have failed, and offer a viable "framework" for fixing these systems.

Covers a lot of court cases but does not explain some of the priciples very well.

The cases were written in an understandable English language and the CD-ROM was helpful in simplifing the chapters but they were too bare. They helped point you in the right direction but needed to be filled in a little more from the chapters.

Forget what other people are saying. This book is meant to give the reader an introduction to the field of criminal justice. I don't know what the other readers were expecting. If they want more depth just buy a specialized book on criminology. This book is great if you are looking for something to guide you in the field, or if you take an intro class in college or high school.

This book was one of the worst text books I have ever read. Many of its sources were outdated. It failed to give a complete review of the field, neglecting several important theories. It also failed to discuss even the slightest hint of research that supports or challenges the theories it does discuss. Furthermore, it is not only biased but fails to give a comprehensive discussion of the subjects in which it has a bias preventing the reader from making an informed opinion.

Not the usual Bluebook everyone thinks about when we hear this name. This book is the bible for ALL legal writing. It shows you exactly how to research a case, cite a case, shepardize a case, annotate a case and spells out exactly what should be contained in a legal review. It is easy to learn and follow. You may get lucky, some might come tabbed out for you already, but if it doesn't it is really easy to tab out. The BlueBook is also versatile. It can be applied in the field of Justice all the way up to Torts.

Legal writing is a living, breathing monster with its own meanings, undertones, etc. Be that as it may, it is also very exact, precise and to the point--no room for fluff. For someone who likes to tell a story, like me, that can be hard to grasp. This book is excellent to help w/ the art of legal writing. It too is exact, to the point, and brief. It keeps me from straying from the subject, helps me integrate the law into a discussion of the matter at hand and helps me focus on the main issue I'm trying to convey.

Once you learn how to use this book you won't want to let it go. It is really not that expensive at all. If you have the time to hunt for a used book in a student book store, you may even get it cheaper. Just make sure you get the current edition!

Good luck!
Monica

I buy mostly for my retail customers. In this case my customer was very happy with both the book and the prompt service. As a result, this was a "win-win" for the three of us: the original seller, the buyer (me), and my customer. And thanks to Amazon for bringing us all together.

This book is great, the dynamics between all the characters has been done really well. All 3 stories in the book are what I would expect a Nora Roberts book to be and I wasn't disappointed.

This book is part of A series about the MacGregor family. I loved every single one of them.

The MacGregor Brides (Macgregors Series) Thank goodness the early Nora Roberts' novels are being republished. They are warm and funny stories about people that you learn to love. The MacGregor series is comfortable. It is like sharing the evening with old friends.

This book was my introduction to the MacGregor Family. I instantly fell in love with every single one of them; so much so that I am now going back to the beginning and reading "Rebellion" to fully understand the how and why of the MacGregor clan. In "Brides," Nora Roberts takes us through the romantic journey and subsequent pairings of the three MacGregor granddaughters - Laura (the attorney) and the man grandpa hired to keep the home the cousins shared security-tight, Royce Cameron, Gwendolyn (the doctor), matched by grandpa with writer, Branson McGuire, and Julia (the real estate mogul), fighting all the way to the altar with builder/contractor, Cullum Murdoch, and, on this one, a two-fisted match made unknowingly not only by Daniel, but Cullum's own father, Michael, as well. Daniel MacGregor, Sr., begins each story with his memoirs as to the manner in which he had a working hand in each matching. The chosen three men were strong and handsome with exemplary values and great genes (according to the MacGregor)! Even though each story was quite similar where boy pursues girl, girl puts up a fight and finally gives in, hook, line and sinker, the stories are told in a captivating and interesting manner so that even the most unsympathetic romance reader has no choice but to delve into the lives of this fabulous family. I have read earlier romance books by Nora and felt they were just your typical soap-opera, happy ending stories, however, I believe the MacGregors themselves give the romance stories the strength and attention that encourages the reader to want to be a part of the family, albeit the amorous and idealistic worlds that only fiction can unfurl. I thoroughly enjoyed the stories and look forward to future MacGregor adventures.

Teachers and the Law (7th ed) is divided into chapters and sections, and is written in a question/answer format. Different cases are also introduced, discussed and their significance in education is explored. All kinds of issues are discussed, from what constitutes libel to marriage between administrators and teachers within the same school. The vocabulary/terminalogy is not difficult....you do not need a legal dictionary, nor any dictionary for that matter. It is very interesting, not mundane, and easy to read. One of the few books that I didn't dread having to read for my courses. This is an excellent book to have in your educator's library.

I received the book in good shape. The cover looked next to new and there were very little marks or highlights in the text.

Teachers and the Law (6th Edition) was the primary text used for my National-Louis University (Wheeling, IL) School Law course. Although the text implies that only information regarding teachers will be discussed, Fischer actually covers legal issues that deal with many levels of educational law including student cases, administrator cases, and even cases that don't involve teachers at all, but loosely relate to educational law in general.

This was my first exposure to any formally-presented school law information and I must confess that I was quite overwhelmed at first. Fischer tends to present a major case very clearly and then fully explains its implications and outcomes. However, he then presents several other related cases that often have conflicting or opposing outcomes to the original point.

What I learned from this text is that there is very little "black and white" when it comes to interpreting school law. I was interested to learn that even the landmark decision cases are still constantly debated in the courts and sometimes ignored when decisions are made by judges or juries. It took our experienced professor to help us understand the subtext of some of the cases and discern the probable reasons why some cases were decided in seemingly arbitrary ways.

In general, Teachers and the Law greatly increased my understanding of school law, but without an experienced professor, I would not have gleaned as much practical information.

Case law, unless done perhaps by the likes of John Grissam, is not page turning material. However, the authors have done an incredible job of putting very pressing and often complex areas into an accessible and engaging book. Written in an easy to use question and answer format, the updated book touches on education legal issues ranging from free speech, to students with disabilities, to internet issues. While of great use for educator (or educators to be), the book could also easily be adapted for classroom use, either as a debate or research starter. Worth every penny of its price.

The book looks helpful at first glance but we'll see what happens when the semester gets rolling and it matters. I usually find that buying these books is an inevitable trap I fall into with disappointing results. But, in all fairness I haven't given this book much of a shot yet. Amazon is excellent - obviously.

A must read for every serious law student and attorney - even if you are an experienced brief writer, this easy to understand book, filled withe clear examples forces you to think and improve your persuasive writing.

This book was okay with a few tips for law students writing papers, but save your money. This was not as helpful as I had hoped.

I've read a lot of books on writing, and all of the common books about legal writing, and this is the best of the bunch. If I had to recommend a single book about writing to anyone, lawyer or not, I would recommend this one. It is expensive but worth every penny. Throw away your Strunk and White!

I am currently a law student, this book provides some insightful ideas and is useful because it doesn't require an hour of reading to pick out helpful relevant tips. All the 100 tips are outlined in the front and back cover so you can skim for something specific and go to it and read it.

The author of this book is highly respected and provides many CLE classes, I recommend this book to anyone looking for ways to improve their brief writing.