Book Group: A range of reads from NYU Law faculty in 2016

In 2016, faculty members at NYU Law published books that they wrote and edited on a range of current issues and historical subjects, such as colonial law, personal property in the digital age, and the future of the global economy. Here’s a round-up.

 

Jose Alvarez. The Impact of International Organizations on International Law (Brill, 2016)

From the Publisher: “The Impact of International Organizations on International Law addresses how international organizations, particularly those within the UN system, have changed the forms, contents, and effects of international law. Professor Jose Alvarez considers the impact on sovereigns and actions taken by the contemporary Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and UN Specialized Agencies such as the World Health Organization. … This text raises fundamental questions concerning the future of international law given the challenges international organizations pose to legal positivism, to traditional conceptions of sovereignty, and to the rule of law itself.”

Samuel Estreicher and Joy Radice eds. Beyond Elite Law: Access to Civil Justice in America (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2016) 

From the Publisher: “Are Americans making under $50,000 a year compelled to navigate the legal system on their own, or do they simply give up because they cannot afford lawyers? … This book poses the question: can we—at the current level of resources, both public and private—better address the legal needs of all Americans? Leading judges, researchers, and activists discuss the role of technology, pro bono services, bar association resources, affordable solo and small firm fees, public service internships, and law student and nonlawyer representation.”

Franco Ferrari. Limits to Party Autonomy in International Commerical Arbitration (Juris 2016)

From the Publisher: “Courts and commentators have often stated that in arbitration “party autonomy is everything.” In effect, where the adjudicative power does not rest on party autonomy, there is no arbitration. But the papers published in this book, which were presented at a conference hosted by NYU’s Center for Transnational Litigation, Arbitration and Commercial Law that took place in September 2015, show that while party autonomy may trigger everything, meaning the steps necessary for one to be able to speak of arbitration, it is not itself everything.”

Eleanor Fox ’61, et al., eds. The Economic Characteristics of Developing Jurisdictions: Their Implications for Competition Law (Edward Elgar, 2015)

From the Publisher: “Concluding that one competition model does not fit all socio-economic contexts, the book frames an alternative vision of competition rules for developing nations… A number of different factors that influence the implementation of competition law in developing countries are analysed, such as the content and goals of such laws, the institutional features, and the political, ideological and legal conditions that must complement law and policy.”

David Garland. The Welfare State: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2016)

From the Publisher: “Discusses the welfare state as a whole, setting it in its historical and sociological context, offers a succinct amount of the social and political issues surrounding the welfare state, provides a new basis for thinking about a familiar set of institutions, and places US and UK institutions against the comparative backdrop of European and Nordic welfare regimes. Part of the ‘very short introductions’ series.”

Watch: David Garland on the history of the welfare state and why it matters. 

Martin Guggenheim '71 and Vivek S. Sankaran. Representing Parents in Child Welfare Cases: Advice and Guidance for Family Defenders (American Bar Association, 2016)

From the Publisher: “Representing Parents in Child Welfare Cases is a guide for attorneys representing parents accused of parental unfitness due to abuse or neglect.  Competent legal representation is often the sole support a parent has when working with the child welfare system.   This book provides practical tips for attorneys at each stage of the process.”

Mervyn King. The End of Alchemy: Money, Banking, and the Future of the Global Economy (W.W. Norton 2016)

From the Publisher: “Something is wrong with our banking system. We all sense that, but Mervyn King knows it firsthand; his ten years at the helm of the Bank of England, including at the height of the financial crisis, revealed profound truths about the mechanisms of our capitalist society. In The End of Alchemy he offers us an essential work about the history and future of money and banking, the keys to modern finance.”

Watch: Mervyn King on why he wrote “The End of Alchemy” 

Sally Engle Merry. The Seductions of Quantification: Measuring Human Rights, Gender Violence, and Sex Trafficking (University of Chicago Press, 2016)

From the Publisher: “With The Seductions of Quantification, leading legal anthropologist Sally Engle Merry investigates the techniques by which information is gathered and analyzed in the production of global indicators on human rights, gender violence, and sex trafficking. Although such numbers convey an aura of objective truth and scientific validity, Merry argues persuasively that measurement systems constitute a form of power by incorporating theories about social change in their design but rarely explicitly acknowledging them.”

Watch: Sally Merry on why she wrote “The Seductions of Quantification”

William Nelson '65. The Common Law in Colonial America. Volume III, The Chesapeake and New England, 1660-1750 (Oxford University Press, 2016)

From the Publisher: “Shows how the legal systems of Britain's thirteen North American colonies, which were initially established in response to divergent political, economic, and religious initiatives, slowly converged until it became possible by the 1770s to imagine that all thirteen participated in a common American legal order, reveals how Virginia and Massachusetts had both adopted the common law by the mid-eighteenth century and begun to converge toward a common American legal model, and demonstrates that the law in the other New England colonies gravitated toward the Massachusetts model, while Maryland's law gravitated toward that of Virginia.”

Samuel Rascoff & Zachary K. Goldman. Global Intelligence Oversight, Governing Security in the Twenty-First Century (Oxford University Press, 2016)

From the Publisher: “In a world that is increasingly unstable, intelligence services like the American CIA and the United Kingdom's MI6 exist to deliver security. Whether the challenge involves terrorism, cyber-security, or the renewed specter of great power conflict, intelligence agencies mitigate threats and provide decisional advantage to national leaders. But empowered intelligence services require adequate supervision and oversight, which must be about more than the narrow (if still precarious) task of ensuring the legality of covert operations and surveillance activities. Global Intelligence Oversight is a comparative investigation of how democratic countries can govern their intelligence services so that they are effective, but operate within frameworks that are acceptable to their people in an interconnected world.”

Jason Schultz. The End of Ownership: Personal Property in the Digital Economy (The MIT Press, 2016)

From the Publisher: “If you buy a book at the bookstore, you own it. You can take it home, scribble in the margins, put in on the shelf, lend it to a friend, sell it at a garage sale. But is the same thing true for the ebooks or other digital goods you buy? Retailers and copyright holders argue that you don’t own those purchases, you merely license them. That means your ebook vendor can delete the book from your device without warning or explanation—as Amazon deleted Orwell’s 1984 from the Kindles of surprised readers several years ago. … In The End of Ownership, Aaron Perzanowski and Jason Schultz explore how notions of ownership have shifted in the digital marketplace, and make an argument for the benefits of personal property.”

Watch: Jason Schultz on why he wrote “The End of Ownership”

Jeremy Waldron. Political Political Theory: Essays on Institutions (Harvard University Press, 2016)

From the Publisher: “Political institutions are the main subject of political theory—or they ought to be. Making the case with his trademark forcefulness and intellectual aplomb, Jeremy Waldron argues in favor of reorienting the theory of politics toward the institutions and institutional principles of modern democracy and the mechanisms through which democratic ideals are achieved. ... Reflecting on an array of issues about constitutional structure, Waldron considers the uses and abuses of diverse institutions and traditions, from separation of powers and bicameralism to judicial review of legislation, the principle of loyal opposition, the nature of representation, political accountability, and the rule of law.”

 

More Books and Supplements from Our Faculty:

William Allen and Reinier Kraakman. Commentaries and Cases on the Law of Business Organization (5th ed., Wolters Kluwer 2016)

William Allen and Reinier Kraakman. Commentaries and Cases on the Law of Business Organization: Statutory Supplement  (2016-2017 ed., Wolters Kluwer 2016)

Kwame Anthony Appiah. A Decent Respect: Honor in the Life of People and of Nations (Faculty of Law, Univ. of Hong Kong 2015) (Hochelaga Lectures, 2013-2014, and other contributors)

Barton Beebe. Trademark Law: An Open Source Casebook (2016)

Barton Beebe et al. Trademarks, Unfair Competition, and Business Torts (Wolters Kluwer, 2d ed. 2016)

Norman Dorsen et al. Comparative Constitutionalism: Cases and Materials (3d ed., West Academic Publishing, 2016)

Richard Epstein and Catherine Sharkey. Cases and Materials on Tort (11th ed., Wolters Kluwer, 2016)

Samuel Estreicher et al. Cases and Materials on Employment Discrimination, the Field as Practiced (5th ed., West Academic Publishing 2016)

Samuel Estreicher and Matthew Bodie. Labor Law (Foundation Press 2016)  

Samuel Estreicher & David L. Noll. Legislation and the Regulatory State (LexisNexis/Carolina Academic Press, 2015)

John Ferejohn and Frances McCall Rosenbluth. Forged Through Fire: War, Peace, and the Democratic Bargain (Liveright 2016)

Franco Ferrari & Francesca Ragno. Cross-border Litigation in Europe: The Brussels I Recast Regulation as a Panacea? (Wolters Kluwer/CEDAM, 2016)

Eleanor Fox '61, George Bermann, Jeffery Atik, Frank Emmert & Damien Gerard. 2016 Documents Supplement to Cases and Materials on European Union Law (West Academic Publishing 2016)

Eleanor Fox '61, Harry First, Nicolas Charbit and Elisa Ramundo eds. Antitrust in Emerging and Developing Countries (2nd ed., Institute of Competition Law, 2016)

Barry Friedman and John Goldberg. Open Book: The Inside Track to Law School Success (2d ed., Wolters Kluwer 2016)

Mark Geistfeld, Marc A. Franklin, Robert L. Rabin, and Michael D. Green. Tort Law and Alternatives: Cases and Materials (10th ed., Foundation Press 2016)

Stephen Gillers '68 et al., Regulation of Lawyers: Statutes and Standards (Concise 2017 ed., Wolters Kluwer 2016)

Clayton Gillette. Advanced Introduction to International Sales Law (Edward Elgar 2016)

Clayton Gillette and Steven Walt. The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods: Theory and Practice (2d ed., Cambridge Univ. Press 2016)

Samuel Issacharoff, Pamela Karlan, Richard Pildes and Nathan Persily. The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process (5th ed., Foundation Press 2016)

Arthur Miller, John Sexton, Jack Friedenthal, and Helen Hershkoff. Civil Procedure Supplement, For Use with All Pleading and Procedure Casebooks (West Academic Publishing 2016)

Geoffrey Miller ed., Economics of Financial Law (Edward Elgar, 2016)

Geoffrey Miller ed., Economics of Securities Law (Edward Elgar, 2016)

Posted December 22, 2016