The Best General Law Books 2024

1. Police Ethics : A Matter of Character (Paperback) 9781928916222

Police officers make thousands of important, life-changing decisions everyday. In order to promote and ensure justice, these decisions must be fair and even-handed. Police officers cannot think or act as if they are free to define what is legal and what is illegal or to decide who is inherently good and who is inherently bad. They must act in an ethical manner.Yet, police officers are given a limited amount of training in police ethics. Often times, it consists solely of a list of do's and don'ts. This book was written to emphasize the importance of police ethics. The authors seek to treat police officers as the intelligent and knowledgeable people that they are, instead of discussing what to do and what not to do. This book discusses various schools of ethical thought in a way that works from the ground up, moving from a general understanding toward practical applications. Readers will gain a workable understanding of ethics that can be applied to the entire gamut of situations they encounter on the street every day.ISBN: 9781928916222 ISBN10: 1928916228 Contributors: Perez, Douglas W., Moore, J. Alan,

Police Ethics : A Matter of Character (Paperback) 9781928916222

2. Carter, Dee and Zuckman's Mass Communication Law in a Nutshell, 6th (Paperback) 9780314160201

ISBN: 9780314160201 ISBN10: 0314160205 Contributors: Carter, T. Barton, Dee, Juliet Lushbough, Zuckman, Harvey L.,

Carter, Dee and Zuckman's Mass Communication Law in a Nutshell, 6th (Paperback) 9780314160201

3. Burdens of Proof in Modern Discourse (Paperback)

This legal, philosophical, and rhetorical study by Richard H. Gaskins provides the first systematic treatment of arguments-from-ignorance across a wide range of modern discourse-from constitutional law, scientific inquiry, and moral philosophy to organizational behavior, computer operation, and personal interaction.

Public and professional debates have come to rely heavily on a special type of reasoning: the argument-from-ignorance, in which conclusions depend on the lack of compelling information. "I win my argument," says the skillful advocate, "unless you can prove that I am wrong." This extraordinary gambit has been largely ignored in modern rhetorical and philosophical studies. Yet its broad force can be demonstrated by analogy with the modern legal system, where courts have long manipulated burdens of proof with skill and subtlety. This legal, philosophical, and rhetorical study by Richard H. Gaskins provides the first systematic treatment of arguments-from-ignorance across a wide range of modern discourse—from constitutional law, scientific inquiry, and moral philosophy to organizational behavior, computer operation, and personal interaction. Gaskins reviews the historic shifts in constitutional proof burdens that have shaped public debate on fundamental rights and, by analogy, on the fundamental status of intellectual and cultural authority. He shows how similar shifts have dominated polemical battles between scientific and ethical modes of authority, affecting both academic and popular discussion. Finally, he discovers the philosophical roots of default reasoning strategies in the arguments of Kant and nineteenth-century Kantian schools. Concluding that shifting proof burdens are inescapable in a world of scientific and moral uncertainty, Gaskins emphasizes the common strategic ground shared by dogmatic and skeptical reasoning. Using Hegelian strategies, he describes a more pluralistic temper that can move critical thinking beyond polemics and strengthen our capacities for common discourse.

4. ENVY (Paperback)

This classic study is one of the few books to explore extensively the many facets of envy--"a drive which lies at the core of man's life as a social being." Ranging widely over literature, philosophy, psychology, and the social sciences, Professor Schoeck-- a distinguished sociologist and anthropologist--elucidates both the constructive and destructive consequences of envy in social life. Perhaps most important, he demonstrates that not only the impetus toward a totalitarian regime but also the egalitarian impulse in democratic societies are alike in being rooted in envy.

This classic study is one of the few books to explore extensively the many facets of envy—“a drive which lies at the core of man’s life as a social being.” Ranging widely over literature, philosophy, psychology, and the social sciences, Professor Schoeck— a distinguished sociologist and anthropologist—elucidates both the constructive and destructive consequences of envy in social life. Perhaps most important, he demonstrates that not only the impetus toward a totalitarian regime but also the egalitarian impulse in democratic societies are alike in being rooted in envy.