The Law As It Could Be

by Fiss, Owen M.

• ISBN13: 9780814727256
• ISBN10: 0814727255
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-01
• Publisher: New York University Press

Summary

View the Table of Contents. Read the Introduction.An uplifting book.--ChoiceRefreshingly straightforward. Fiss writes in the style of John Marshall, sweeping the reader along with vigorous argumentation. --The Law and Politics Book ReviewThe Law As It Could Be gathers Fiss's most important work on procedure, adjudication and public reason, introduced by the author and including contextual introductions for each piece--some of which are among the most cited in Twentieth Century legal studies. Fiss surveys the legal terrain between the landmark cases of Brown v. Board of Education and Bush v. Gore to reclaim the legal legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. He argues forcefully for a vision of judges as instruments of public reason and of the courts as a means of shaping society in the image of the Constitution.In building his argument, Fiss attends to topics as diverse as the use of the injunction to restructure social institutions; how law and economics have misunderstood the role of the judge; why the movement seeking alternatives to adjudication fails to serve the public interest; and why Bush v. Gore was not the constitutional crisis some would have us believe. In so doing, Fiss reveals a vision of adjudication that vindicates the public reason on which Brown v. Board of Education was founded.

Author Biography

Owen Fiss is Sterling Professor of Law at Yale University.

Table of Contents

Preface
The Forms of Justice	p. 1
The Social and Political Foundations of Adjudication	p. 48
The Right Degree of Independence	p. 59
The Bureaucratization of the Judiciary	p. 66
Against Settlement	p. 90
The Allure of Individualism	p. 105
The Political Theory of the Class Action	p. 122
The Awkwardness of the Criminal Law	p. 133
Objectivity and Interpretation	p. 149
Judging as a Practice	p. 172
The Death of Law?	p. 191
Reason vs. Passion	p. 207
The Irrepressibility of Reason	p. 221
Bush v. Gore and the Question of Legitimacy	p. 229
Afterword	p. 244
Notes	p. 251
Index	p. 283
Acknowledgments	p. 285
About the Author	p. 287
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