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"An examination of how over the past eighty years the legal system has increasingly confused quantity with quality and might with legitimacy. As the law bloats into chaos, it staggers only by excusing itself from the very commands it insists that we obey, leaving Americans victim to arbitrary, unconstitutional power. By examining the system as a whole, Gibney shows that the tragedies often portrays as isolated mistakes or the work of a few bad actors--police misconduct, prosecutorial overreach, and the outrages of imperial presidencies--are really the inevitable consequences of law's descent into lawlessness." --… (más)
Interesting critique of US law because it looks into some less prominent but nevertheless important issues:
State immunity from civil suits: is it appropriate in a republic? Bureaucratic regulation-writing and agency courts: do they unconstitutionally blur powers that ought to be separate? Arbitration and plea-bargaining: is justice served by avoiding trials? Congress: does the idea of legislative intent make sense coming from a legislature where most of the intellectual work is done by staff and lobbyists? Legal costs: why have costs exploded and what is lost when legal counsel is increasingly beyond the reach of ordinary working people? Judges: why do they not use their powers to get cases heard speedily and without allowing procedural games to become a war of attrition? Law schools: does the case briefing method teach what lawyers need to be able to do in practice? Etc.
Lots of facts and informed opinion without partisanship. Also, the writing is often snappy, ironic and frank, dispensing with myths like judges' claim that they are not legislators: developing common law is making the law!
The book portrays an American legal system that is overworked, unaffordable, and struggling to survive only by allowing its proper work to be offloaded to arbitrators, bureaucracies and prosecutors, as protections for your right to a fair hearing before and at trial in court are progressively eroded. ( )
Many folks might pass on the book based on its obvious premise without knowing what they're missing. While most might agree that this country's legal system is broken, they definitely wouldn't be able to identify the problems, or the solutions. Gibney does all of that with a ver thorough, deep, and well-thought out examination of everything from the law's origins to education to economics. Everything supported by statistics. This is the rare book focused on timely problems with suggestions about how to pull back from the brink. It's not a terribly conservative perspective, but also not terribly liberal either. Highly recommended. ( )
Alarming and Yet Also Hilarious. Even as someone who was once a political activist with some fairly high level (if State, rather than Federal) access to the halls of legislative deliberation, this book was pretty shocking in revealing just how much of a mess the American legal system truly is. While the author himself is clearly in favor of some form of ideal government that works, this book just as easily makes the case that anarchy would at least be preferable to the current system. Yet throughout, the author's acerbic wit is what makes the book such an enjoyable read - even as the critiques it makes show just how depressingly dreadful the current US legal system really is. Very much recommended reading. Just maybe try to do it in a place where plentiful alcohol is readily available. ;) ( )
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
The practice of law was vulgar, but the study of it was sublime.
Oscar Wilde (attrib/John Irving
You can't keep doing shitty things, and then feel bad about yourself like that makes it okay! You need to be better!
Todd Chavez (BoJack Horseman)
Dedicatoria
Primeras palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
This book describes law in its essentials. (Author's Note)
This book is about the increasingly serious failings of the American legal system. (Preface)
It's not only possible, but likely, that all three branches of government are controlled by criminals. (Introduction)
Karl Marx thought the workers' paradise would have no lawyers.
Citas
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Copy editors are not, I think, well-represented in acknowledgments, but they should be, especially when dealing with a book on law, a subject whose first language is not English. Marina Lowry has my gratitude. (Acknowledgements)
Últimas palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Going forward, in every legal interaction, it's useful to remember who serves whom, and to remind our employees when they step out of line.
"An examination of how over the past eighty years the legal system has increasingly confused quantity with quality and might with legitimacy. As the law bloats into chaos, it staggers only by excusing itself from the very commands it insists that we obey, leaving Americans victim to arbitrary, unconstitutional power. By examining the system as a whole, Gibney shows that the tragedies often portrays as isolated mistakes or the work of a few bad actors--police misconduct, prosecutorial overreach, and the outrages of imperial presidencies--are really the inevitable consequences of law's descent into lawlessness." --
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State immunity from civil suits: is it appropriate in a republic?
Bureaucratic regulation-writing and agency courts: do they unconstitutionally blur powers that ought to be separate?
Arbitration and plea-bargaining: is justice served by avoiding trials?
Congress: does the idea of legislative intent make sense coming from a legislature where most of the intellectual work is done by staff and lobbyists?
Legal costs: why have costs exploded and what is lost when legal counsel is increasingly beyond the reach of ordinary working people?
Judges: why do they not use their powers to get cases heard speedily and without allowing procedural games to become a war of attrition?
Law schools: does the case briefing method teach what lawyers need to be able to do in practice?
Etc.
Lots of facts and informed opinion without partisanship. Also, the writing is often snappy, ironic and frank, dispensing with myths like judges' claim that they are not legislators: developing common law is making the law!
The book portrays an American legal system that is overworked, unaffordable, and struggling to survive only by allowing its proper work to be offloaded to arbitrators, bureaucracies and prosecutors, as protections for your right to a fair hearing before and at trial in court are progressively eroded. (