Biddle acquired a number of interesting and informative titles in the past month, including the following. For a complete list of new acquisitions, see here.
Michal Bobek, ed.
Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2015.
KJE5461 .S45 2015.
Click here to view the Full Catalog Record.
“The past decade has witnessed change in the ways judges for the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights are selected. The leitmotif has been securing greater professional quality of the judicial candidates, and, for this purpose, both European systems have put in place various advisory panels or selection committees that are called to evaluate the aptitude of the candidates put forward by the national governments. Are these institutional reforms successful in guaranteeing greater quality of the judicial candidates? Do they increase the legitimacy of the European courts? Has the creation of these advisory panels in any way altered the institutional balance, either horizontally within the international organizations, or vertically, between the respective organization and its Member States? Above all, has the spree of ‘judicial comitology’ as currently practiced a good way for selecting Europe’s judges?
These and a number of other questions are addressed in this topical volume in a comparative and interdisciplinary prospective. The book is structured into two elements: first, how the operation of the new selection mechanisms is captured and analyzed from different vantage points, and secondly, having mapped the ground, the book critically and comparatively engages with selected common themes, examining the new mechanisms with respect to values and principles such as democracy, judicial independence, transparency, representativeness, and legitimacy.”
Cedric Ryngaert and Math Noortmann, eds.
Cambridge, United Kingdom: Intersentia, 2014.
K3249 .H86 2014.
Click here to view the Full Catalog Record.
“In 1994, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) coined the term ‘human security’ in the seminal UNDP Human Development Report. This report approached ‘security’ for the first time from a holistic perspective: security would no longer be viewed from a purely military perspective, but rather it would encapsulate economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community and political security. Although the concept of human security accords a higher status to individual than to governmental interests, human security discourses have continually emphasised the central role of States as providers of human security.
This volume challenges this paradigm, and highlights the part played by non-state actors in both threatening human security and also in rescuing or providing relief to those whose human security is endangered. It does so from a legal perspective, (international) law being one of the instruments used to realise human security as well as being a material source or guiding principle for the formation of human security-enhancing policies. In particular, the volume critically discusses how various non-state actors, such as armed opposition groups, multinational corporations, private military / security companies, non-governmental organisations, and national human rights institutions, participate in the construction of such policies, and how they are held legally accountable for their adverse impact on human security.”
Silvio Ferrari & Rossella Bottoni eds.
London, [England]; New York, New York: Routledge, 2015.
ebook.
Click here to view the Full Catalog Record.
“The field of law and religion studies has undergone a profound transformation over the last thirty years, looking beyond traditional relationships between State and religious communities to include rights of religious liberty and the role of religion in the public space.
This handbook features new, specially commissioned papers by a range of eminent scholars that offer a comprehensive overview of the field of law and religion. The book takes on an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from anthropology, sociology, theology and political science in order to explore how laws and court decisions concerning religion contribute to the shape of the public space.”
Same Sex Couples: Comparative Insights on Marriage and Cohabitation.
Macarena Sáez, ed.
Dordrecht: Springer, 2015.
K699 .S25 2015.
Click here to view the Full Catalog Record.
“This book shows six different realities of same-sex families. They range from full recognition of same-sex marriage to full invisibility of gay and lesbian individuals and their families. The broad spectrum of experiences presented in this book share some commonalities: in all of them legal scholars and civil society are moving legal boundaries or thinking of spaces within rigid legal systems for same-sex families to function. In all of them there have been legal claims to recognize the existence of same-sex families. The difference between them lies in the response of courts. Regardless of the type of legal system, when courts have viewed claims of same-sex couples and their families as problems of individual rights, they have responded with a constitutional narrative protecting same-sex couples and their families. When courts respond to these claims with rigid concepts of what a family is and what marriage is as if legal concepts where unmodifiable, same-sex couples have remained outside the protection of the law.
Until forty years ago marriage was the only union considered legitimate to form a family. Today more than 30 countries have granted rights to same sex couples, including several that have opened up marriage to couples of the same sex. Every day there is a new bill being discussed or a new claim being brought to courts seeking formal recognition of same sex couples. Not all countries are open to changing their legal structures to accommodate same-sex couples, but even those with no visible changes are witnessing new voices in their communities challenging the status quo and envisioning more flexible legal systems.”
Affirmative action and racial equity: considering the Fisher case to forge the path
Edited by Uma M. Jayakumar and Liliana M. Garces with Frank Fernandez.
New York, NY; Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2015.
Click here to view the Full Catalog Record.
“The highly anticipated U.S. Supreme Court decision in Fisher v. University of Texas placed a greater onus on higher education institutions to provide evidence supporting the need for affirmative action policies on their respective campuses. It is now more critical than ever that institutional leaders and scholars understand the evidence in support of race consideration in admissions as well as the challenges of the post-Fisher landscape.
This important volume shares information documented for the Fisher case and provides empirical evidence to help inform scholarly conversation and institutions’ decisions regarding race-conscious practices in higher education. With contributions from scholars and experts involved in the Fisher case, this edited volume documents and shares lessons learned from the collaborative efforts of the social science, educational, and legal communities. Affirmative Action and Racial Equity is a critical resource for higher education scholars and administrators to understand the nuances of the affirmative action legal debate and to identify the challenges and potential strategies toward racial equity and inclusion moving forward.”
Akhil Reed Amar.
New York: Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group, 2015.
KF4530 .A43 2015.
Click here to view the Full Catalog Record.
“From Kennebunkport to Kauai, from the Rio Grande to the Northern Rockies, ours is a vast republic. While we may be united under one Constitution, separate and distinct states remain, each with its own constitution and culture. Geographic idiosyncrasies add more than just local character. Regional understandings of law and justice have shaped and reshaped our nation throughout history. America’s Constitution, our founding and unifying document, looks slightly different in California than it does in Kansas.
In The Law of the Land, renowned legal scholar Akhil Reed Amar illustrates how geography, federalism, and regionalism have influenced some of the biggest questions in American constitutional law. Writing about Illinois, “the land of Lincoln,” Amar shows how our sixteenth president’s ideas about secession were influenced by his Midwestern upbringing and outlook. All of today’s Supreme Court justices, Amar notes, learned their law in the Northeast, and New Yorkers of various sorts dominate the judiciary as never before. The curious Bush v. Gore decision, Amar insists, must be assessed with careful attention to Florida law and the Florida Constitution. The second amendment appears in a particularly interesting light, he argues, when viewed from the perspective of Rocky Mountain cowboys and cowgirls.
Propelled by Amar’s distinctively smart, lucid, and engaging prose, these essays allow general readers to see the historical roots of, and contemporary solutions to, many important constitutional questions. The Law of the Land illuminates our nation’s history and politics, and shows how America’s various local parts fit together to form a grand federal framework.”
Blamestorming, blamemongers and scapegoats: allocating blame in the criminal
Gavin Dingwall and Tim Hiller.
Bristol, UK; Chicago, IL: Policy Press, 2015.
HV6025 .D56 2015.
Click here to view the Full Catalog Record
“We live in a society that is increasingly preoccupied with allocating blame: when something goes wrong someone must be to blame. Bringing together philosophical, psychological, and sociological accounts of blame, this is the first detailed criminological account of the role of blame in which the authors present a novel study of the legal process of blame attribution, set in the context of criminalisation as a social and political process. This timely and topical book will be essential reading for anyone working or researching in the criminal justice field. It will also be of wider interest to anyone wishing to discover the role of blame in modern society.”
Edited by Ronald J. Rychlak.
Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
KF358 .A44 2015.
Click here to view the Full Catalog Record.
“Edited by Ronald J. Rychlak, American Law from a Catholic Perspective is one of the most comprehensive surveys of American legal topics by a gathering of major Catholic legal scholars. Contributors explore, among other subjects, bankruptcy, bioethics, corporate law, environmental law, ethics, family law, immigration, intellectual property, international human rights, labor law, legal education, legal history, military law, the philosophy of law, property, torts, and several different aspects of constitutional law, including religious freedom, privacy rights, and free speech.
Here readers will find probing arguments that bring the critical perspective of Catholic social thought to bear on American legal jurisprudence. Essays include Michael Ariens’ account of Catholicism in the intellectual discipline of legal history; William Saunders’ assessment of human rights and Catholic social teaching; Hadley Arkes’ look at the place of Catholic social thought with respect to bioethics; Lucia Silecchia’s examination of a Catholic understanding of stewardship with respect to environmental laws; Dorie Klein’s consideration of the place of Catholic views on the death penalty and Eighth Amendment jurisprudence; and many others on major legal topics in American jurisprudence—and their intersection with Catholic social teaching.
American Law from a Catholic Perspective: Through a Clearer Lens is essential reading for all Catholic lawyers, judges, and law students, as well as an important contribution to non-Catholic readers seeking guidance from a faith tradition on questions of legal jurisprudence. Based on well-developed and established ideas in Catholic social thought, the evaluations, suggestions, and remedies set forth offer ample food for thought and a basis for action in the realm of legal scholarship.”