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New Biddle Aquisitions

August 25, 2015

New titles acquired by Biddle Law Library in the past month.

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

 

The Global War on Tobacco : Mapping the World’s First Public Health Treaty
Heather Wipfli. 
Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015. 
K3593.5.T63 W57 2015. 
Click here to view the Full Catalog Record

“Amid evidence of an emerging pandemic, a committed group of public health professionals and institutions sought in the mid-1990s to challenge the tobacco industry’s expansion by negotiating a binding international law under the auspices of the World Health Organization. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)—the first collective global response to the causation of avoidable chronic disease—was one of the most quickly ratified treaties in United Nations history. In The Global War on Tobacco, Heather Wipfli tells the engaging story of the FCTC, from its start as an unlikely civil society proposal to its enactment in 178 countries as of June 2014. Wipfli also reveals how globalization offers anti-tobacco advocates significant cooperative opportunities to share knowledge and address cross-border public health problems.

The book—the first to delve deeply into the origin and development of the FCTC—seeks to advance understanding of how non-state actors, transnational networks, and international institutionalization can impact global governance for health. Case studies from a variety of diverse high-, middle-, and low-income countries provide real-world examples of the success or failure of tobacco control. Aimed at public health professionals and students, The Global War on Tobacco is a fascinating look at how international relations is changing to respond to the modern global marketplace and protect human health.”

 

International Commercial Litigation  
Richard Fentiman 
Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2015. 
K7340 .F46 2015. 
Click here to view the Full Catalog Record


“The legal framework of cross-border commercial disputes is important and complex in practice. This book is a definitive account of the law and practice relating to such disputes in English law, and in particular in the London Commercial Court, which describes the law in detail and articulates its underlying principles. The majority of cases before the Commercial Court involve non-UK parties and it is intended to be of value to lawyers throughout the world concerned with cross-border transactions and litigation.

The new edition of this highly regarded work has been fully updated to reflect current trends and concerns in commercial litigation practice. It considers significant changes in the law, and how they affect both the structure and drafting of commercial transactions, and the strategic choices of litigants. It includes extensive treatment of the recast Brussels I Regulation which is in force from January 2015 and which will substantively affect the treatment of contractual jurisdiction clauses, and incorporates analysis of important recent decisions including VTB v Nutritek, The Alexandros T, and Star Reefers v JFC.” 

 

Judicial Activism : An Interdisciplinary Approach to the American and European Experiences
Luís Pereira Coutinho, Massimo La Torre, Steven D. Smith, editors. 
Cham [Switzerland] : Springer, [2015]. 
K2146 .J825 2015. 
Click here to view the Full Catalog Record

“This volume offers different perspectives on judicial practice in the European and American contexts, both arguably characterized in the last decades by the emergence of novel normative and even policy arguments by judges. The central question deserving the attention of the contributors concerns the degree in which judicial exercises in practical reasoning may amount to forms of judicial usurpation of the legislative function by courts. Since different views as to the nature and scope of legal reasoning lead to different degrees of tolerance regarding what should be admissible to courts, that same nature and scope is thoroughly debated.

The main disciplinary approach is that of general jurisprudence, but the contributions take stock of other disciplines in which judicial activism has been addressed, namely positive theories of judicial behavior. Accordingly, the book also explores the development of interdisciplinary dialogue about the theme.”

 

The ‘War on Terror’ and the Framework of International Law
Helen Duffy. 
Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2015. 
KZ6795.T47 D84 2015. 

Click here to view the Full Catalog Record

“Helen Duffy’s analysis of international law and practice in relation to terrorism and counter-terrorism provides a framework for analysing the lawfulness of the many legislative, policy and judicial developments which have proliferated since 9/11. Among the many specific issues she addresses are targeted killings and the death of Osama bin Laden, detentions (including Guantanamo Bay), sanctions regimes, surveillance, extraordinary renditions, the prohibition on ‘association’ or ‘support’ for terrorism and the evolving preventive role of criminal law. She also considers the unfolding responses to political and judicial wrongs committed in the war on terror, such as the impact of the courts on human rights protection. While exploring areas of controversy, uncertainty and flux, she questions post-9/11 allegations of gaping holes, inadequacies or transformation in the international legal order and concludes by highlighting characteristics of the ‘war on terror’ and questioning its longer term implications.”

 

The mindful legal writer : mastering predictive writing. Heidi K. Brown, Esq. 
New York : Wolters Kluwer Law and Business, 2015. KF250 .B76 2015. Click here to view the Full Catalog Record

 

“The Mindful Legal Writer: Mastering Predictive Writing by Professor Heidi K. Brown, who has 15 years of experience in the law firm world and 7 years of teaching legal writing, focuses on predictive legal analysis. It offers law students and junior lawyers a step-by-step approach to learning the scientific framework of written predictive legal analysis, while at the same time encouraging them to consider the artistic nature of communicating through the written word. This book also proposes that students consider the basics of the concept of mindfulness in the legal writing context a recent movement in legal education to encourage law students to be fully conscious and aware of one s actions and surroundings, and pay attention, on purpose, in the present moment (according to mindfulness advocate, Jon Kabat-Zinn) in order to be a better legal counselor to clients.”

 

Internet governance : origins, current issues, and future possibilities.  Roy Balleste. Lanham ; Boulder ; New York ; London : Rowman & Littlefield, [2015]. 
TK5105.8854 .B35 2015. Click here to view the Full Catalog Record

 

“Internet Governance: Origins, Current Issues, and Future Possibilities deals with Internet governance and includes computer history, Internet beginnings, institutions and stakeholders, proposed models of governance, and human rights. The concept of Internet governance covers an exceptionally complex and rapidly changing field of norms and rules. Its origins and conflicts engage many disciplines and give rise to technical standards with contributions from a wide range of stakeholders. At the same time, the Internet has increasingly become the dominant reality for all the information processing industries. The ultimate goal of the book is to establish a foundation for identifying a new model of governance for the Internet. In doing so, the book honors the efforts of previous scholars who have considered and proposed other models for the governance of the Internet. 

Among its aims, the book is intended as an introduction for the novice to the subject of internet governance. The first two chapters offer a historical foundation of the institutions and the debate. The next two chapters discuss the evolution of that debate over the last twenty years. The final two discuss the present and future ramifications of the debate and include the author’s attempts to sketch a practical plan for a new concept of Internet governance. 

This book provides an introductory, multidisciplinary account of the forces at work in the evolving concept of internet governance for scholars in the information studies fields, including computer, information and library science. It should also be useful for scholars in the fields of international law, international relations, diplomacy studies and political science.”

 


The big trial : law as public spectacle
. Lawrence M. Friedman. University Press of Kansas, 2015. KF220 .F75 2015. Click here to view the Full Catalog Record

 
“The trial of O. J. Simpson was a sensation, avidly followed by millions of people, but it was also, in a sense, nothing new. One hundred years earlier the Lizzie Borden trial had held the nation in thrall. The names (and the crimes) may change, but the appeal is enduring—and why this is, how it works, and what it means are what Lawrence Friedman investigates in The Big Trial.

What is it about these cases that captures the public imagination? Are the “headline trials” of our period different from those of a century or two ago? And what do we learn from them, about the nature of our society, past and present? To get a clearer picture, Friedman first identifies what certain headline trials have in common, then considers particular cases within each grouping. The political trial, for instance, embraces treason and spying, dissenters and radicals, and, to varying degrees, corruption and fraud. Celebrity trials involve the famous—whether victims, as in the case of Charles Manson, or defendants as disparate as Fatty Arbuckle and William Kennedy Smith—but certain high-profile cases, such as those Friedman categorizes as tabloid trials, can also create celebrities. The fascination of whodunit trials can be found in the mystery surrounding the case: Are we sure about O. J. Simpson? What about Claus von Bulow—tried, in another sensational case, for sending his wife into a coma.? An especially interesting type of case Friedman groups under the rubric worm in the bud. These are cases, such as that of Lizzie Borden, that seem to put society itself on trial; they raise fundamental social questions and often suggest hidden and secret pathologies. And finally, a small but important group of cases proceed from moral panic, the Salem witchcraft trials being the classic instance, though Friedman also considers recent examples.

Though they might differ in significant ways, these types of trials also have important similarities. Most notably, they invariably raise questions about identity (Who is this defendant? A villain? An innocent unfairly accused?). And in this respect, The Big Trial shows us, the headline trial reflects a critical aspect of modern society. Reaching across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the latest outrage, from congressional hearings to lynching and vigilante justice to public punishment, from Dr. Sam Sheppard (the “fugitive”) to Jeffrey Dahmer (the “cannibal”), The Rosenbergs to Timothy McVeigh, the book presents a complex picture of headline trials as displays of power—moments of “didactic theater”” that demonstrate in one way or another whether a society is fair, whom it protects, and whose interest it serves.”