An eye-opening look at the influential Supreme Court justice who disrupted American jurisprudence in order to delegitimize opponents and establish a conservative legal order
The lawyer-dominated adversary system of criminal trial, which now typifies practice in Anglo-American legal systems, was developed in England in the 18th century. This text shows how and why lawyers were able to capture the trial.
Our present system of criminal prosecution originated in England in the sixteenth century. Langbein traces its development, which was at its most intense during the reign of Queen Mary. He shows how the common law developed a system of official investigation and prosecution that incorporated the medieval institution of the jury trial. He places equal emphasis on the role of the justices of the peace as public prosecutors. The second half of the book compares the English system with those of the Holy Roman Empire (Germany) and France. He concludes by refuting the popular opinion that the English were strongly indebted to continental models. "This is an excellent work of scholarship, exhibiting wide research, erudition and analytical ability." --Joseph H. Smith, Harvard Law Review 88 (1974-1975) 485 JOHN LANGBEIN is Sterling Professor of Law and Legal History at Yale Law School. He has held academic positions at Stanford University, Oxford University, the Max-Planck-Institut für Europäische Rechtsgeschichte and the Max-Planck-Institut für Ausländisches und Internationales Strafrecht. Langbein is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Academy of Comparative Law, the International Association of Procedure Law, and other organizations in the fields of legal history and comparative law. Some of his most distinguished publications and articles include History of the Common Law: The Development of Anglo-American Legal Institutions (2009), Torture and the Law of Proof: Europe and England in the Ancient Regime (1977), and "The Supreme Court Flunks Trusts," Supreme Court Review (1991).
Chance, Order, Change: The Course of International Law, General Course on Public International Law by J. Crawford The course of international law over time needs to be understood if international law is to be understood. This work aims to provide such an understanding. It is directed not at topics or subject headings — sources, treaties, states, human rights and so on — but at some of the key unresolved problems of the discipline. Unresolved, they call into question its status as a discipline. Is international law “law” properly so-called? In what respects is it systematic? Does it — can it — respect the rule of law? These problems can be resolved, or at least reduced, by an imaginative reading of our shared practices and our increasingly shared history, with an emphasis on process. In this sense the practice of the institutions of international law is to be understood as the law itself. They are in a dialectical relationship with the law, shaping it and being shaped by it. This is explained by reference to actual cases and examples, providing a course of international law in some standard sense as well.
Under the banner of the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments, the Supreme Court of America has constitutionalized vast areas of criminal procedure law in ways that often reward the guilty whilst hurting the innocent. This book reconceptualizes the basic foundations of the criminal procedure field.
In the tradition of Michael Herr's Dispatches, a National Guardsman's account of the war in Iraq. John Crawford joined the Florida National Guard to pay for his college tuition, willingly exchanging one weekend a month and two weeks a year for a free education. But in Autumn 2002, one semester short of graduating and newly married—in fact, on his honeymoon—he was called to active duty and sent to the front lines in Iraq. Crawford and his unit spent months upon months patrolling the streets of Baghdad, occupying a hostile city. During the breaks between patrols, Crawford began recording what he and his fellow soldiers witnessed and experienced. Those stories became The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell—a haunting and powerful, compellingly honest book that imparts the on-the-ground reality of waging the war in Iraq, and marks as the introduction of a mighty literary voice forged in the most intense of circumstances.
Federal Law Enforcement: A Primer, serves to fill a gap in criminal justice literature by examining federal law enforcement from both historical and contemporary perspectives. Part I of the book considers the history of federal law enforcement in the United States as well as its current status within the broader American law enforcement community. Debate over the reach and scope of federal law enforcement is also addressed. Part II through Part V of the book examines the history, organization, personnel, and function of over 20 specific federal law enforcement agencies. Finally, Part VI of the book addresses careers within, and the future of, federal law enforcement in the United States. "I've been waiting 25 years for a book in this subject area or on this topic." -- John F. Doherty, Marist College PowerPoint slides are available to professors upon adoption of this book. Download sample slides from the full 435-slide presentation here. If you have adopted the book for a course, contact bhall (at) cap-press (dot) com to request the PowerPoint slides.
The Depression-era murder trial of George Crawford in Northern Virginia helped end the exclusion of African Americans from juries. Nearly forgotten today, the murders, ensuing manhunt, extradition battle and sensational trial enthralled the nation. Before it was over, the U.S. House of Representatives threatened to impeach a federal judge, the age-old states rights debate was renewed, and a rift nearly split the fledgling NAACP. In the end, the story's hero--Howard University Law School dean Charles Hamilton Houston--was the subject of public ridicule from critics who had little understanding of the inner workings of the case. This book puts the Crawford murder trial in its fullest context, side by side with relevant events of the time.