The Best Jurisprudence Books 2024

1. On Philosophy in American Law, (Hardcover)

In recent years there has been tremendous growth of interest in the connections between law and philosophy, but the diversity of approaches that claim to be working at the intersection of philosophy and law might suggest that this area of inquiry is so fractured as to be incoherent. This volume gathers 38 leading scholars working in law and philosophy to provide focused and straightforward articulations of the role that philosophy might play at this juncture of American legal history. The volume marks the 75th anniversary of Karl Llewellyn's essay "On Philosophy in American Law," in which he rehearsed the broad development of American jurisprudence, diagnosed its contemporary failings, and then charted a productive path opened by the variegated scholarship that claimed to initiate a realistic approach to law and legal theory. The essays are written in the spirit of Llewellyn's article: they are succinct and direct arguments about the potential for bringing law and philosophy together.

On Philosophy in American Law, (Hardcover) Author: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521883689 Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 2009-03-23 Page Count: 332

2. Written and Interpersonal Communication: Methods for Law Enforcement [With CDROM]

Good Condition: Minimal damage to the cover, dust jacket may not be included, minimal wear to binding, most of the pages undamaged(e.g., minimal creases or tears), highlighting / underlining acceptable on books as long as the text is readable and markings are not excessive, no missing pages. May be a former library book, with usual treatments(e.g., mylar covers, call stickers, stamps, card pockets, barcodes, or remainder marks). Extra components, such as CDs, DVDs, figurines, or access codes are not included. ISBN: 9780131597198 ISBN10: 0131597191 Contributors: Wallace, Harvey, Roberson, Cliff,

"Written and Interpersonal Communication Methods for Law Enforcement," now in its fourth edition, teaches students the methods and approaches that are crucial to successful communication. The text focuses on the key aspects of both oral and written communication, such as dealing with witnesses, interviewing suspects, writing reports, and other interactions that influence law enforcement operations. The text also concentrates on helping readers to improve their English skills through Rules for Improvement exercises. Effective communication is essential for police work, particularly for leadership roles within a police organization. By improving their communication skills through the use of this text, students can prepare themselves for successful careers in law enforcement

3. Women, Law, and Social Control (Other) 9780205442072

ISBN: 9780205442072 ISBN10: 0205442072 Contributors: Merlo, Alida V., Pollock, Joycelyn M.,

A collection of original articles written by leading scholars in the field that examines women as offenders, professionals, and victims. This integrated approach explores current issues - including the increase in women's imprisonment rates, women as rape survivors, women who kill in abusive relationships, and women working within the criminal justice system-which illuminates the special sanctions women face today.

4. Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters, (Paperback)

What does economics have to do with law? Suppose legislators propose that armed robbers receive life imprisonment. Editorial pages applaud them for getting tough on crime. Constitutional lawyers raise the issue of cruel and unusual punishment. Legal philosophers ponder questions of justness. An economist, on the other hand, observes that making the punishment for armed robbery the same as that for murder encourages muggers to kill their victims. This is the cut-to-the-chase quality that makes economics not only applicable to the interpretation of law, but beneficial to its crafting. Drawing on numerous commonsense examples, in addition to his extensive knowledge of Chicago-school economics, David D. Friedman offers a spirited defense of the economic view of law. He clarifies the relationship between law and economics in clear prose that is friendly to students, lawyers, and lay readers without sacrificing the intellectual heft of the ideas presented. Friedman is the ideal spokesman for an approach to law that is controversial not because it overturns the conclusions of traditional legal scholars--it can be used to advocate a surprising variety of political positions, including both sides of such contentious issues as capital punishment--but rather because it alters the very nature of their arguments. For example, rather than viewing landlord-tenant law as a matter of favoring landlords over tenants or tenants over landlords, an economic analysis makes clear that a bad law injures both groups in the long run. And unlike traditional legal doctrines, economics offers a unified approach, one that applies the same fundamental ideas to understand and evaluate legal rules in contract, property, crime, tort, and every other category of law, whether in modern day America or other times and places--and systems of non-legal rules, such as social norms, as well. This book will undoubtedly raise the discourse on the increasingly important topic of the economics of law, giving both supporters and critics of the economic perspective a place to organize their ideas.

Law's Order: What Economics Has to Do with Law and Why It Matters, (Paperback) Author: Princeton University Press ISBN: 9780691090092 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2001-07-22 Page Count: 338

5. I Do Solemnly Swear: The Moral Obligations of Legal Officials, (Paperback)

What should the people expect from their legal officials? This book asks whether officials can be moral and still follow the law, answering that the law requires them to do so. It revives the idea of the good official - the good lawyer, the good judge, the good president, the good legislator - that guided Cicero and Washington and that we seem to have forgotten. Based on stories and law cases from America's founding to the present, this book examines what is good and right in law and why officials must care. This overview of official duties, from oaths to the law itself, explains how morals and law work together to create freedom and justice, and it provides useful maxims to argue for the right answer in hard cases. Important for scholars but useful for lawyers and readable by anybody, this book explains how American law ought to work.

I Do Solemnly Swear: The Moral Obligations of Legal Officials, (Paperback) Author: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521735087 Format: Paperback Publication Date: 2009-04-27 Page Count: 306

6. The Making of Law (Paperback)

In this book, Bruno Latour pursues his ethnographic inquiries into the different value systems of modern societies. After science, technology, religion, art, it is now law that is being studied by using the same comparative ethnographic methods. The case study is the daily practice of the French supreme courts, the Conseil d'Etat, specialized in administrative law (the equivalent of the Law Lords in Great Britain). Even though the French legal system is vastly different from the Anglo-American tradition and was created by Napoleon Bonaparte at the same time as the Code-based system, this branch of French law is the result of a home-grown tradition constructed on precedents. Thus, even though highly technical, the cases that form the matter of this book, are not so exotic for an English-speaking audience. What makes this study an important contribution to the social studies of law is that, because of an unprecedented access to the collective discussions of judges, Latour has been able to reconstruct in detail the weaving of legal reasoning: it is clearly not the social that explains the law, but the legal ties that alter what it is to be associated together. It is thus a major contribution to Latour's social theory since it is now possible to compare the ways legal ties build up associations with the other types of connection that he has studied in other fields of activity. His project of an alternative interpretation of the very notion of society has never been made clearer than in this work. To reuse the title of his first book, this book is in effect the 'Laboratory Life of Law'.

The Making of Law (Paperback)

7. Law and Contemporary Corrections (Paperback)

The first true text on the subject of corrections law and prisoner's rights, this book is an accessible yet comprehensive introduction to the subject. Rather than relying exclusively on cases to illuminate the content, Smith discusses and briefly excerpts case material to aid students not intimately familiar with legal language. Extensive pedagogy further aids in comprehension. Bringing both a legal and academic background to bear, Smith both writes for the needs of the student and the illumination and clarification of legal issues.

The first true text on the subject of corrections law and prisoner's rights, this book is an accessible yet comprehensive introduction to the subject. Rather than relying exclusively on cases to illuminate the content, Smith discusses and briefly excerpts case material to aid students not intimately familiar with legal language. Extensive pedagogy further aids in comprehension. Bringing both a legal and academic background to bear, Smith both writes for the needs of the student and the illumination and clarification of legal issues.

8. Organized Crime (Paperback)

Moving beyond outdated interpretations, this text addresses the rapidly changing world of organized crime. By looking at the forces of globalization, terrorism and hi-tech crime, it helps readers understand the complicated nature of organized crime today. Appropriate for a wide audience, its level is applicable for both undergraduate and graduate level students and its interdisciplinary approach relies on research from a variety of fields. Chapter introductions and critical thinking questions keep readers engaged as they are confronted with the realities of organized crime in a twenty-first century world. For courses in Organized Crime and Corruption, Homeland Security, and Criminal Justice Intelligence.

Organized Crime (Paperback)

9. Law's Quandary (Paperback)

This lively book reassesses a century of jurisprudential thought from a fresh perspective, and points to a malaise that currently afflicts not only legal theory but law in general. Steven Smith argues that our legal vocabulary and methods of reasoning presuppose classical ontological commitments that were explicitly articulated by thinkers from Aquinas to Coke to Blackstone, and even by Joseph Story. But these commitments are out of sync with the world view that prevails today in academic and professional thinking. So our law-talk thus degenerates into "just words"--or a kind of nonsense. The diagnosis is similar to that offered by Holmes, the Legal Realists, and other critics over the past century, except that these critics assumed that the older ontological commitments were dead, or at least on their way to extinction; so their aim was to purge legal discourse of what they saw as an archaic and fading metaphysics. Smith's argument starts with essentially the same metaphysical predicament but moves in the opposite direction. Instead of avoiding or marginalizing the "ultimate questions," he argues that we need to face up to them and consider their implications for law.

Law's Quandary (Paperback)

10. Research Methods : A Qualitative Reader 9780131690257

ISBN: 9780131690257 ISBN10: 0131690256 Contributors: Tewksbury, Richard, Miller, J. Mitchell,

This practical new book exposes readers to the realities of criminal research, and focuses on the planning, design, conduct, analysis, and ethical aspects of this qualitative research. Using real-world examples, reader-friendly discussions and ample illustrations, you will learn how the processes and decisions of qualitative work produce theoretically and pragmatically important research findings. Well-written and understandable articles demonstrate such topics as crime and deviance fieldwork, ethnography, and the danger and stigma in crime and deviance fieldwork. An excellent book for those in the field of criminal justice and research fieldworkers.