Reading List: NYU Law Faculty Books of 2025
If you want a sense of the breadth of scholarship undertaken at NYU Law, take a look at books published by faculty members during the past year. Subjects range from hidden “landmines” in standardized contracts, as mapped by Stephen Choi, Bernard Petrie Professor of Law and Business; to the US Supreme Court’s role in mass incarceration, explored by Rachel Barkow, Charles Seligson Professor of Law; to climate change, a focus for Professor César Rodríguez-Garavito and Wilf Family Professor of Property Law Katrina Wyman.
Other books on the 2025 list tackle topics ranging from emerging legal concerns to longstanding injustice. John Edward Sexton Professor of Law and Economics Oren Bar-Gill, for example, looks at potential harms from algorithms and artificial intelligence, while Margaret B. Hoppin Professor of Law Deborah Archer documents the role race has played in transportation infrastructure.
While some works focus on the United States—such as Arthur T. Vanderbilt Professor of Law David Garland‘s examination of the unique qualities of “America’s carceral regime”—many others take a global perspective. That is the case with a volume co-edited by Jeanne Fromer, Walter J. Derenberg Professor of Intellectual Property Law, which presents analyses of IP protection regimes for fashion in the US, United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and Asia.
The books also span genres, including memoir, practice guides, and, of course, casebooks—the latter including both traditionally published and open-access texts.
Here is a roundup of the books that full-time faculty members published in 2025. Book descriptions are excerpted from publishers’ websites.
General and Academic Titles
Attention, Please!
“Appiah reminds us ‘that the information economy has given way to the attention economy: your apps are wildly signaling for your attention. “Attention merchants” seek to monetize our eyeballs on social media; algorithms seek to entrance us, to tether us, to keep our attention captive…. By contrast, trained attention is about selectivity. About priority. Everything, everywhere, all at once: that’s distraction, the opposition of attention.’” (Thornwillow Press)
Captive Gods: Religion and the Rise of Social Science
“The foundations of modern social science were built on the study of religion, the acclaimed thinker Kwame Anthony Appiah argues. Delving into the intellectual currents of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he investigates how formative thinkers…grappled with the concepts of society and religion as interdependent categories. Appiah shows how their efforts to define religion, or evade the task, mark the power and limitations of social thought in ways that persist among theorists today. Religion was not merely an object of study but a framework through which early social scientists established sociology as a discipline.” (Yale University Press)
Dividing Lines: How Transportation Infrastructure Reinforces Racial Inequality
“Our nation’s transportation system is crumbling: highways are collapsing, roads are pockmarked, and commuter trains are unreliable. But as acclaimed scholar and ACLU president Deborah Archer warns in Dividing Lines, before we can think about rebuilding and repairing, we must consider the role race has played in transportation infrastructure, from the early twentieth century and into the present day.” (W. W. Norton and Company)
Advanced Introduction to International Patent Law
Margo A. Bagley and Rochelle C. Dreyfuss
“Concise yet comprehensive, this book provides an eloquent overview of the international patent system, outlining the requirements for protecting inventions and enforcing patent rights. It explores the mechanisms that ensure compliance in relation to these obligations and how they have been interpreted by international bodies. [Bagley and Dreyfuss] assess different systems for protecting technological innovations, such as trade secrets, design protection, genetic resources, traditional knowledge, digital sequence information, and AI.” (Edward Elgar Publishing)
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Justice Abandoned: How the Supreme Court Ignored the Constitution and Enabled Mass Incarceration
“Rachel Barkow highlights six Supreme Court decisions that paved the way for mass incarceration. These rulings have been crucial to the meteoric rise in pretrial detention and coercive plea bargaining. They have enabled disproportionate sentencing and overcrowded prison conditions. And they have sanctioned innumerable police stops and widespread racial discrimination. If the Court were committed to protecting constitutional rights and followed its standard methods of interpretation, none of these cases would have been decided as they were, and punishment in America would look very different than it does today.” (Harvard University Press)
Race, Racism, and International Law
“[C]ritical race theory [CRT] remains markedly absent from discourses in global affairs and international law. This volume opens the door for CRT to enter the international sphere. Featuring contributions from 30 of today’s leading scholars from around the world, [this book] explains how the concept of racial difference sits at the foundation of the legal, political, and social structures of hierarchy that shape the contemporary global order.” (Stanford University Press)
More about Race, Racism, and International Law
Contract Hazards: Lawyers and Their Landmines
Stephen J. Choi et al.
“[This book] investigates the hidden dangers embedded in standardized contract language. These ‘landmines’ are not rare mistakes—they are structural features of how contracts are assembled under pressure, often from recycled precedent and boilerplate. Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative research, [Choi’s book] explores how flawed terms originate, why they endure, and how they are sometimes exploited by lawyers when deals unravel.” (Oxford University Press)
Eastward, Westward: A Life in Law
Jerome A. Cohen
“Few Americans have done more than Jerome A. Cohen to advance the rule of law in East Asia…. In this compelling, conversational memoir, Cohen recounts a dramatic life of striving for a better world from Washington, DC, to Beijing, offering vital first-hand insights from the study and practice of Sino-American relations.… Cohen helped break political barriers in both China and Taiwan, and he was instrumental in securing the release of political prisoners in several countries. Sharing these experiences and many others, this book tells the full story of an unparalleled career bridging East and West.” (Columbia University Press)
Legal Heterodoxy in the Global South: Adapting Private Laws to Local Contexts
Kevin E. Davis and Mariana Pargendler eds.
“This volume challenges the common perception that legal systems in developing countries are outdated or plagued by enforcement issues. Instead, it presents detailed case studies of private law in the Global South, showcasing how countries in the region have embraced legal doctrines that diverge from traditional approaches in the Global North…. [The book] demonstrates how many countries have incorporated social and distributional concerns into their private law regimes [and] presents a set of under-appreciated and innovative legal developments in the Global South.” (Cambridge University Press)
More about Legal Heterodoxy in the Global South
Fashion and Intellectual Property
Jeanne C. Fromer et al. eds.
“This book assembles a constellation of some of the best-known intellectual property scholars around the world to present their analysis of how different aspects of intellectual property laws interact with and regulate the fashion industry. It presents a meticulously curated collection of how intellectual property laws interact with contemporary fashion and culture studies in protecting fashion creations that range from clothing and footwear to textiles. It covers key features of intellectual property rights regimes in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and Asia that include copyright, trademarks, patents, and geographical indications.” (Cambridge University Press)
More about Fashion and Intellectual Property
Law and Order Leviathan: America’s Extraordinary Regime of Policing and Punishment
“How could America, that storied land of liberty, be home to mass incarceration, police killings, and racialized criminal justice? In Law and Order Leviathan, David Garland explains how America’s racialized political economy gives rise to this extraordinary outcome…. America’s carceral regime will remain an outlier until [its] economy is structurally transformed. And yet, Garland argues, there is a path to reduced violence and significant penal reform even in the absence of structural change. [His book] sets out a powerful theory of the relation between political economy and crime control and a realistic framework for pursuing progressive change. (Princeton University Press)
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Class Action and New Forms of Aggregate Litigation in the United States (Bocconi Conference Reports May 10, 2024)
Arthur R. Miller and Helen Hershkoff eds.
“[This debut volume of the] Bocconi University’s Department of Legal Studies Series bring[s] together…two esteemed US professors of civil procedure with [two] Bocconi professors …for a public discussion of class actions and other new and emergent forms of aggregate litigation.… The far-ranging remarks focused on the origin and development of the class action, its utility in challenging racial and gendered inequalities, as well as market defects, and the potential—and limits—of aggregate litigation to resolve some of the most critical issues of our times, touching on technological change, environmental degradation, economic inequality, and democratic decline.” (Egea Bocconi University Press)
More about Class Action and New Forms of Aggregate Litigation in the United States
Climate Change on Trial: Mobilizing Human Rights Litigation to Accelerate Climate Action
“This [work] tells the 20-year socio-legal story of human rights–based climate change litigation. Based on an original database of the totality of rights-based climate change (RCC) lawsuits around the world as well as interviews with leading actors and participant observation in the field, the [book] explains the rise and global diffusion of RCC litigation. It combines insights from global governance, international law, climate policy, human rights, and legal mobilization theory in order to offer a socio-legal account of the actors, strategies, and norms that have emerged at the intersection of human rights and climate governance.” (Cambridge University Press)
More about Climate Change on Trial
The FIDIC Conditions of Contract and Domestic Construction Law: A Guide for Global Dispute Resolution
Friedrich Rosenfeld and Franco Ferrari eds.
“[This book furnishes] a comprehensive country-by-country description and analysis of how domestic construction law impacts FIDIC contracts. Parties to an international construction contract often use the standardized set of contract terms published by the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, known as the FIDIC Conditions. However, FIDIC terms apply within the boundaries of domestic law, which not only governs the formation, interpretation, and validity of FIDIC contracts but also fills gaps and shapes the expectations of the respective parties or decision-makers in disputes. Thus, parties and their counsel must be thoroughly informed of the same.” (Kluwer Law International)
More about The FIDIC Conditions of Contract and Domestic Construction Law
One Life to Lead: The Mysteries of Time and the Goods of Attachment
“[This book] focuses special attention on two interrelated dimensions of our experience: the temporal and the interpersonal. Many of the puzzles and challenges we must negotiate in leading our lives concern the passage of time, which comprehensively shapes and frequently unsettles our emotions, our attitudes, and our understanding of ourselves. Other questions concern our determination to form and sustain valuable personal and social attachments, even though doing so requires us to share authority with others and renders us vulnerable to grief, loss, and pain. Scheffler’s investigations of our temporal and interpersonal experience remind us that our lives unfold at a particular point in time and in a particular set of social circumstances.” (Oxford University Press)
Now Is Now, and Then Is Then: A Memoir
“‘Who am I really? And what should I name my pet iguana?’ Few people—and certainly not Daniel Shaviro when he was young—can answer such questions very well. But, as Shaviro shows in this lively, witty, and candid memoir—composed entirely of short vignettes drawn from the first 29 years of his life—he never let any of this stop him from stumbling blindly but high-spiritedly forward.” (Independently published)
More about Now Is Now, and Then Is Then
Algorithmic Harm: Protecting People in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Cass R. Sunstein and Oren Bar-Gill
“Oren Bar-Gill and Cass Sunstein consider the harms and benefits of AI and algorithms and catalog the different ways in which algorithms are being or may be used in consumer and other markets. The authors identify the market conditions under which these uses injure consumers and consider policy and regulatory responses that could reduce the risks consumers, investors, workers, and voters face now—and in the future.” (Oxford University Press)
Local Greens: Cities and Twenty-First Century Environmental Problems
Katrina M. Wyman and Danielle Spiegel-Feld ’10
“As the federal government failed to take ambitious action to limit climate change in the early 21st century, many cities in the US pledged to step into the void. Networks of city governments and philanthropists offered support, and cities invested their own resources in sustainability offices. However, cities made limited progress in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions in the first two decades of this century. Local Greens provides a clear-eyed analysis of the potential for big city governments to address society’s most pressing environmental problems in the near term. Through original case studies of New York’s environmental policy efforts in the early 21st century, the book examines the promise and perils of turning to cities to tackle climate change.” (Cambridge University Press)
Casebooks, Textbooks, Study Guides, and Reference Works
Anthony G. Amsterdam and Randy Hertz, Trial Manual 10 for the Defense of Criminal Cases (American Law Institute, 5 volumes)
Barton Beebe, Trademark Law: An Open-Access Casebook (Version 12)
Maggie Blackhawk et al. eds., Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law (LexisNexis)
Richard R.W. Brooks et al., Selections for Contracts (Foundation Press)
Stephen J. Choi and A.C. Pritchard, Securities Regulation: Statutory Supplement (West Academic)
Richard A. Epstein and Catherine M. Sharkey, Business, Defamation, and Privacy Torts (Aspen Publishing)
Richard A. Epstein and Gregory M. Dickinson, The Law of Torts (Aspen Publishing 2d ed.)
Samuel Estreicher and Matthew T. Bodie, Labor Law (Foundation Press 3d ed.)
Daniel Francis and Christopher Jon Sprigman, Antitrust: Principles, Cases, and Materials (Open Access 3d ed.)
Jack H. Friedenthal, Arthur R. Miller, John E. Sexton, Helen Hershkoff, Adam N. Steinman, and Troy A. McKenzie '00, Civil Procedure Supplement for Use with All Pleading and Procedure Casebooks (West Academic Publishing)
Jeanne C. Fromer and Christopher Jon Sprigman, Copyright Law: Cases and Materials (Open Access Version 7)
Mark Geistfeld, Product Liability Law in the Age of AI (Aspen Publishing 3d ed.)
Geoffrey P. Miller and Jennifer H. Arlen '86 et al., Principles of the Law, Compliance and Enforcement for Organizations (American Law Institute)
Gregg Polsky et al., Stay Ahead of the Pack: Your Comprehensive Guide to the Upper Level Curriculum, 2d ed. (West Academic Publishing)
Friedrich Rosenfeld and Franco Ferrari eds., Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of International Commercial Arbitration (Edward Elgar Publishing)
Foreign Language Titles
Franco Ferrari et al. eds., Kommentar zum UN Kaufrecht (CISG): Übereinkommen der Vereinten Nationen über Verträge über den internationalen Warenkauf (C.H. Beck 8th ed.)
Franco Ferrari et al. eds., Münchener Kommentar zum Handelsgesetzbuch: HGB, Band 5: Viertes Buch. Handelsgeschäfte (C.H. Beck 6th ed.)
César Rodríguez-Garavito, El cambio climático en el banquillo: Cuando los derechos humanos y los tribunales se encuentran en la lucha contra la emergencia ambiental (Siglo XXI Editores)
Joseph H. H. Weiler, L’Europa è ancora cristiana? Saggio esplorativo su cristianesimo, laicità eidentità europea (Rizzoli)
Joseph H. H. Weiler, ¿Una Europa todavía cristiana?: Y otros ensayos sobre Estado e Iglesia (José Miguel Oriol trans., Ediciones Encuentro)
Joseph H. H. Weiler and Pedro Cruz Villalón, Tribunal de Justicia de la UE sobre el pañuelo islámico en el lugar de trabajo (Fundación Coloquio Jurídico Europeo)