New Books

The fourth edition of Legal Reasoning, Writing and Other Lawyering Skills draws on lessons from neuroscience and psychology to deepen students' understanding of self and others, and of the emotional biases and filters that undermine their efforts to "think like a lawyer." The fourth edition retains the same core chapters of earlier editions that emphasize and illustrate the "process" of thinking through, and writing about, a client problem. Within those core chapters, however, the fourth edition refines and adds clarity to foundational concepts. For example, the fourth edition distinguishes between types of client conclusions within legal analysis--ultimate conclusions and legal issue conclusions, and it breaks down the types of reasoning provided within court opinions--explanatory reasoning and application reasoning. These labels foster deeper understanding of the core concepts needed to engage in legal analysis. The fourth edition also provides a more specific formula for successfully drafting rule statements for use within memorandums and briefs. In addition, the fourth edition retains chapters covering the practicalities of modern-day legal practice, with a focus on documents students will draft in day-to-day law practice, from client letters, email responses, demand/settlement letters, and trial briefs. The fourth edition adds a new chapter on drafting summary judgment briefs, and introduces students to working with and citing record evidence. It also adds additional exercises throughout for more hands-on learning opportunities. This book can be used in a typical two-semester legal skills course, as well as more intensive two-semester courses, and three- and even four-semester courses.

This work provides the first comprehensive account of the legal aspects of the Treaty of Waitangi. McHugh deals with a variety of topics ranging from basic constitutional questions to technical legal detail of Maori land tenure. He progresses to issues of relevance today, such as common law aboriginal title and the legal doctrine of the Crown's fiduciary duty, concluding with a jurisprudential epilogue.

This book addresses the fundamental ethical and legal aspects, penal consequences, and social context arising from a citizen's acceptance of guilt. The focus is upon sentencing people who have pleaded guilty; in short, post-adjudication, rather than issues arising from discussions in the pretrial phase of the criminal process. The vast majority of defendants across all common law jurisdictions plead guilty and as a result receive a reduced sentence. Concessions by a defendant attract more lenient State punishment in all western legal systems. The concession is significant: At a stroke, a guilty plea relieves the State of the burden of proving the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and in open court. Plea-based sentencing has become even more visible in recent years. The book provides insightful commentary on the following questions: - If an individual voluntarily accepts guilt, should the State receive this plea without further investigation or any disinterested adjudication? - Is it ethically acceptable to allow suspects and defendants, to self-convict in this manner, without independent confirmation and evidence to support a conviction? - If it is acceptable, what is the appropriate State response to such offenders? - If the defendant is detained pretrial, the ability to secure release in return for a plea may be particularly enticing. Might it be too enticing, resulting in wrongful convictions?

In this book, senior judges and academics at the forefront of transnational commercial law in Asia, Australia, Europe, the US, and elsewhere, reflect on the implications of anti-globalism and the COVID-19 pandemic on international commercial dispute resolution (ICDR). The chapters consider: (1) What types of cross-border commercial disputes will arise in the future and what resources will be needed to respond to them in a cost-effective, time-efficient, and equitable manner? (2) Is there still merit in a multilateral approach to transnational commercial law and ICDR, despite the closing of borders, the rise of protectionism, and the disruption of global supply chains? (3) What reforms and innovations should courts, arbitrators, and mediators contemplate when navigating the post-pandemic landscape? (4) Can the accelerated use of remote technology in ICDR (as prompted by the pandemic) be leveraged to enhance access to justice for all? With a focus on the current crisis in globalism, as well as the associated problems of ensuring justice and fairness in the resolution of cross-border commercial and investment-state disputes along the Belt-and-Road and elsewhere, the book will be an invaluable resource for academics, judges and practitioners alike.

Today, gun control is one of the most polarizing topics in American politics. However, before the 1960s, positions on firearms rights did not necessarily map onto partisan affiliation. What explains this drastic shift? Patrick J. Charles charts the rise of gun rights activism from the early twentieth century through the 1980 presidential election, pinpointing the role of the 1968 Gun Control Act. Gun rights advocates including the National Rifle Association had lobbied legislators for decades, but they had cast firearms control as a local issue. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 spurred congressional proposals to regulate firearms, gun rights advocates found common cause with states' rights proponents opposed to civil rights legislation. Following the enactment of the Gun Control Act, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle began to stake out firm positions. Politicians including Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan recognized the potential of gun control as a wedge issue, and gun rights became increasingly tied to the Republican Party. Drawing on a vast range of archival evidence, Charles offers new insight into the evolution of the gun rights movement and how politicians responded to anti-gun control hardliners. He examines in detail how the National Rifle Association reinvented itself as well as how other advocacy groups challenged the NRA's political monopoly. Offering a deep dive into the politicization of gun rights, Vote Gun reveals the origins of the acrimonious divisions that persist to this day.

This book restores to view a masterpiece of beauty and legal scholarship, which has been lost for almost two hundred years.  Produced anonymously in 1838, The Tree of Legal Knowledge is an elaborate visualization in five large colored plates of the law as stated in Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England.  Intended as "an assistant for students in the study of law," the study aid was not a simple diagram but a beautiful tree with each branch and twig labeled with legal terms and concepts from the Commentaries.  Not for law students only, the original was also intended to be of use to the practicing attorney and educated gentleman "in consolidating his learning and forming an instructive and ornamental appendage to an office." Although Blackstone's Commentaries had been first published eighty years earlier, it remained the primary source for knowledge of English law and required reading for American law students.  The Commentaries remain relevant today and are frequently cited by the U.S. Supreme Court as a source for the original understanding of legal rights and obligations at the time of American Independence.  Despite its artistic beauty and academic significance, The Tree of Legal Knowledge had seemingly disappeared shortly after its publication.  It is not included in the collection of any library, including the Library of Congress or in Yale University's Blackstone Collection, the largest in the world.  It is not listed in the comprehensive Bibliographical Catalog of William Blackstone, edited by Ann Jordan Laeuchli, published for the Yale Law Library in 2015.   The present volume reproduces the only extant copy of The Tree of Legal Knowledge.  It includes an introduction by the editor that places The Tree in historical context and identifies the anonymous author, an otherwise unknown lawyer.  In addition, it reprints the original author's introduction and "explanation of the branches," both extensively annotated.  This book restores this lost masterpiece to its proper place in legal history.  The Tree is a beautiful--and accurate--depiction of English law as expounded in Blackstone's Commentaries, the single most important book in the history of the common law.

The Constitutional Case for Religious Exemptions from Federal Vaccine Mandates by the Rev. Dr. George Gatgounis, Esq., leads off with a legal brief by attorney Gatgounis arguing why mandating a vaccine despite a religious objection of an individual is unconstitutional. This very thorough volume also includes an extensive digest of South Carolina legal cases regarding religion and the full text of several other key lawsuits also arguing against forcing vaccines despite religious objections.