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In the last several decades, there has been an explosion in the number of amici curiae, or "friend of the Court," briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. Amici are not formal parties to a lawsuit, but file to help inform the Justices about the wider repercussions of the case before them. Public ...

In the last several decades, there has been an explosion in the number of amici curiae, or "friend of the Court," briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. Amici are not formal parties to a lawsuit, but file to help inform the Justices about the wider repercussions of the case before them. Public law scholars have long discussed whether these briefs have an impact on the Justices. This book is the first study that seeks to assess the extent of amici influence.

Anyone who has sat on a jury or followed a high-profile trial on television usually comes to the realization that a trial, particularly a criminal trial, is really a performance. Verdicts seem determined as much by which lawyer can best connect with the hearts and minds of the jurors as by what the ...

Anyone who has sat on a jury or followed a high-profile trial on television usually comes to the realization that a trial, particularly a criminal trial, is really a performance. Verdicts seem determined as much by which lawyer can best connect with the hearts and minds of the jurors as by what the evidence might suggest. In this celebration of the American trial as a great cultural achievement, Robert Burns, a trial lawyer and a trained philosopher, explores how these legal proceedings bring about justice. The trial, he reminds us, is not confined to the impartial application of legal rules to factual findings. Burns depicts the trial as an institution employing its own language and styles of performance that elevate the understanding of decision-makers, bringing them in contact with moral sources beyond the limits of law.Burns explores the rich narrative structure of the trial, beginning with the lawyers' opening statements, which establish opposing moral frameworks in which to interpret the evidence. In the succession of witnesses, stories compete and are held in tension. At some point during the performance, a sense of the right thing to do arises among the jurors. How this happens is at the core of Burns's investigation, which draws on careful descriptions of what trial lawyers do, the rules governing their actions, interpretations of actual trial material, social science findings, and a broad philosophical and political appreciation of the trial as a unique vehicle of American self-government.

In Jurismania, Paul Campos asserts that our legal system is beginning to exhibit symptoms of serious mental illness. Trials and appeals that stretch out for years and cost millions, 100 page appellate court opinions, 1,000 page statutes before which even lawyers tremble with fear, and a public that ...

In Jurismania, Paul Campos asserts that our legal system is beginning to exhibit symptoms of serious mental illness. Trials and appeals that stretch out for years and cost millions, 100 page appellate court opinions, 1,000 page statutes before which even lawyers tremble with fear, and a public that grows more litigious every day all testify to a judicial overkill that borders on obsessive-compulsive disorder. Campos locates the source of such madness, paradoxically, in our worship of reason and the resulting belief that all problems are amenable to legal solutions. In insightful discussions of a wide range of cases, from NCAA regulations of student-athletes to the Simpson trial, from our most intractable social disputes over abortion and physician-assisted suicide to the war on drugs and the increasingly fastidious attempts to regulate behavior in public spaces, Campos shows that the mania for more law exacerbates the very problems it seeks to remedy. In his final chapter, the author calls instead for a humbling recognition of the limits of reason and a much more modest role for our legal system. Clearly written and laced with a delicious wit, Jurismania gives us a CAT-scan of the American legal mind at work. It reveals not only that the patient is even worse off than we imagined, but also clarifies the many reasons why.

Long considered one of the most important books on the role and operation of the law, THE POLITICS OF LAW offers a provocative, intelligent critique of traditional jurisprudence. This third edition has been extensively updated to respond to the latest changes in judicial trends. THE quintessential ...

Long considered one of the most important books on the role and operation of the law, THE POLITICS OF LAW offers a provocative, intelligent critique of traditional jurisprudence. This third edition has been extensively updated to respond to the latest changes in judicial trends. THE quintessential critique of our modern judicial system that belongs on the bookshelf of every law student, judge, politician, and interested citizen. Index.