Comparative

Comparative Criminal Justice Systems: A Topical Approach (5th Edition)

Unique in its topical approach, this best-selling book examines systems of law, police, courts, and corrections by using more than 30 different countries to show the diversity in legal systems around the world. The book's organization helps readers understand the various ways policing, adjudication, and corrections systems can be organized and operated. This edition features more complete coverage of Islamic legal tradition, information on reform in Japan, more use of primary sources and updated material throughout. Fully updated to include more information on: The Patriot Act; Sunni and Shia Muslims; Substantive and procedural law changes for France, Germany, and Nigeria; Inquisitorial and adversarial systems; Trial under an inquisitorial proces; Juvenile justice system changes in England, Wales and China. Gives greater attention to the Islamic legal tradition and includes detailed descriptions of its key aspects. Reflect up-to-date events in Japanese criminal justice and covers changes that have been officially approved, but are not yet fully implemented. References the actual laws of many countries and provides additional information supplied by that country’s criminal justice agency. Anyone interested in criminal justice across the world.

Disorderly Conduct: Excerpts from Actual Cases

This assortment of unintentionally amusing courtroom exchanges ranges from the testimony of expert witnesses to jury selection to cross examination to creative defense, closing argument, and sentencing --a rollicking guide to America's legal system.

Adversarial Legalism: The American Way of Law

American methods of policy implementation and dispute resolution are more adversarial and legalistic when compared with the systems of other economically advanced countries. Americans more often rely on legal threats and lawsuits. American laws are generally more complicated and prescriptive, adjudication more costly, and penalties more severe. In a thoughtful and cogently argued book, Robert Kagan examines the origins and consequences of this system of "adversarial legalism."

Kagan describes the roots of adversarial legalism and the deep connections it has with American political institutions and values. He investigates its social costs as well as the extent to which lawyers perpetuate it. Ranging widely across many legal fields, including criminal law, environmental regulations, tort law, and social insurance programs, he provides comparisons with the legal and regulatory systems of western Europe, Canada, and Japan that point to possible alternatives to the American methods.

Kagan notes that while adversarial legalism has many virtues, its costs and unpredictability often alienate citizens from the law and frustrate the quest for justice. This insightful study deepens our understanding of law and its relationship to politics in America and raises valuable questions about the future of the American legal system.

American Law in a Global Context: The Basics

American Law in a Global Context is an elegant and erudite introduction to the American legal system from a global perspective. It covers the law and lawyering tools taught in the first year of law school, explaining the underlying concepts and techniques of the common law used in U.S. legal practice. The ideas central to the development and practice of American law, as well as constitutional law, contracts, property, criminal law, and courtroom procedure, are all presented in their historical and intellectual contexts, accessible to the novice but with insight that will inform the expert. Actual cases illuminate each major subject, engaging readers in the legal process and the arguments between real people that make American law an ever-evolving system.

Comparative Legal Traditions: Text, Materials and Cases on Western Law, (American Casebook Series) (American Casebook Series)

This new edition includes some significant revisions since the last edition was published in 1994. The new edition includes: A greater emphasis on Public Law in the Continental and Common law traditions; More coverage of the impact of the regional European law (EC EU and ECHR) on the legal traditions;Some updated Problems (including one concerning Mixed Jurisdictions); and Numerous updates to the Common Law Tradition materials in light of the many significant reforms in England over the last ten years.

Legal Traditions of the World: Sustainable Diversity in Law

This prize-winning work offers a major new means of conceptualizing law and legal relations across the world. National laws are placed in the broader context of major legal traditions, those of chthonic (or indigenous) law, Talmudic law, civil law, Islamic law, common law, Hindu law, and Asian law. Each tradition is examined in terms of its institutions and substantive law, its founding concepts and methods, its attitude towards the concept of change, and its teaching on relations with other traditions and peoples. Legal traditions are explained in terms of multivalent and non-conflictual forms of logic and thought.
This title is suitable for both undergraduates and postgraduates in comparative law courses worldwide. It may also be of interest to those studying legal history, legal philosophy, international development, international human rights, and international business.
Features
Was awarded the Grand Prize of the International Academy of International Law.
Offers comprehensive coverage of all major legal traditions and their contexts.
Incorporates a level of scholarship and analysis that surpasses all other comparative law textbooks.
Adopts a genuinely global perspective, making it an invaluable resource for courses worldwide.

Comparative Legal Traditions in a Nutshell (2nd Ed) (Nutshell Series)

An introduction to comparative law written from the American lawyer's viewpoint rather than that of the European civil law lawyer. This expert discussion concentrates on the three major legal traditions of the West: civil, common, and socialist. Subjects covered include legal structures in civil law nations; legal actors in civil law tradition; procedure; substantive law; sources of law; judicial process; and rules. Also contains chapters on the European Union and the European human rights system.

Law: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

Law underlies our society -it protects our rights, imposes duties on each of us, and establishes a framework for the conduct of almost every social, political, and economic activity. The punishment of crime, compensation of the injured, and the enforcement of contracts are merely some of the tasks of a modern legal system. It also strives to ensure justice, promote freedom, and protect our security. The result is a system that, while it touches all of our daily lives, is properly understood by only a few, with its impenetrable jargon, obsolete procedures, and interminable stream of Byzantine statutes and judgments of the courts. This clear, jargon-free Very Short Introduction cuts introduces the essentials of law and legal systems in a lively, accessible, and stimulating manner. Explaining the main concepts, terms, and processes of the legal system, it focuses on the Western tradition, but also examines other legal systems, such as customary law and Islamic law. And it looks to the future too, as globalization and rapid advances in technology place increasing strain on our current legal system.

Islam and the Challenge of Democracy: A "Boston Review" Book (Boston Review Book)

The events of September 11 and the subsequent war on terrorism have provoked widespread discussion about the possibility of democracy in the Islamic world. Such topics as the meaning of jihad, the role of clerics as authoritative interpreters, and the place of human rights and toleration in Islam have become subjects of urgent public debate around the world. With few exceptions, however, this debate has proceeded in isolation from the vibrant traditions of argument within Islamic theology, philosophy, and law.

Islam and the Challenge of Democracy aims to correct this deficiency. The book engages the reader in a rich discourse on the challenges of democracy in contemporary Islam. The collection begins with a lead essay by Khaled Abou El Fadl, who argues that democracy, especially a constitutional democracy that protects basic individual rights, is the form of government best suited to promoting a set of social and political values central to Islam. Because Islam is about submission to God and about each individual's responsibility to serve as His agent on Earth, Abou El Fadl argues, there is no place for the subjugation to human authority demanded by authoritarian regimes. The lead essay is followed by eleven others from internationally respected specialists in democracy and religion. They address, challenge, and engage Abou El Fadl's work. The contributors include John Esposito, Muhammad Fadel, Noah Feldman, Nader Hashemi, Bernard Haykel, Muqtedar Khan, Saba Mahmood, David Novak, William Quandt, Kevin Reinhart, and Jeremy Waldron.

Schlesigner, Baade, Herzog and Wise's Comparative Law, 6th (University Casebook Series®) (University Casebook Series)

This casebook for the study of comparative law discusses legal changes resulting from the end of the Soviet Empire and of socialist law. It traces the continuing impact that both European Community law and regional human rights law have had on the internal legal systems of European countries, concomitant tensions toward a revised "common law of Europe," and toward a closer convergence between civil and common law systems. It discusses renewed attention to the methodological problems faced by comparative law, in part because of these other problems.