The Oxford Companion to American Law (Oxford Companions) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195088786 ISBN 13: 9780195088786

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2002

Synopsis

A landmark in legal publishing, The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court is a now classic text many of whose entries are regularly cited by scholars as the definitive statement on any particular subject. In the tradition of that work, editor in chief Kermit L. Hall offers up The Oxford Companion to American Law, a one-volume, A-Z encyclopedia that covers topics ranging from aging and the law, wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping, the Salem Witch Trials and Plessy vs. Ferguson.
The Companion takes as its starting point the insight that law is embedded in society, and that to understand American law one must necessarily ask questions about the relationship between it and the social order, now and in the past. The volume assumes that American law, in all its richness and complexity, cannot be understood in isolation, as simply the business of the Supreme Court, or as a list of common law doctrines. Hence, the volume takes seriously issues involving laws role in structuring decisions about governance, the significance of state and local law and legal institutions, and the place of American law in a comparative international perspective. Nearly 500 entries are included, written by over 300 expert contributors.
Intended for the working lawyer or judge, the high school student working on a term paper, or the general adult reader interested in the topic, the Companion is the authoritative reference work on the subject of American law.

About this title

About the Author:

President of Utah State University, Kermit Hall has written extensively about the history of American law, constitutionalism, and judicial behaviour, especially the development of the Supreme Court. His Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States and the Oxford Guide to Supreme
Court Decisions have won several awards. He is also an expert on openness in government, serving from 1994 to 1998 as one of five members of the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board.

From Booklist:

This title bills itself as "a comprehensive guide to every aspect of law in America." Although that statement is hyperbole, this is perhaps the best one-volume encyclopedia of American law to be published in a long time. Editor Hall, president of Utah State University and a specialist in the history of law, has overseen another Oxford title--Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States (Oxford, 1992)--that will be a standard for many years. His group of contributors includes legal and historical scholars, faculty of law schools, judges, and legal writers.

The book contains nearly 500 articles arranged in an A-Z format. Numerous see also references direct readers to similar topics in the book. Cross-references are denoted within the text for easy travel between articles. Individual cases of American law have, for the most part, been left out of the list of entry headings. There is an index to cases though; that leads readers to the article(s) where the case is discussed. A few extremely important or popular cases are included as entries (Brown v. Board of Education; Leopold and Loeb case; Simpson, O. J., trials of). The same is true for people--only well-known or important historical figures are given individual articles.

Articles are generally several pages long and written at a level that is easily understood. Topics as arcane and confusing as intellectual property law and torts are explained with a minimum of legalese. With the ease of comprehension and the thorough main index, the volume is a good place for students to start school papers. College students will find the bibliography after each article useful in going further in their selected topics. Like law itself, the book is already out-of-date, as topics such as internment and privacy must be reconsidered after laws passed following the September 11, 2001, tragedy. However, this should not deter any library from purchasing this title. Readers will find a sometimes difficult topic covered in a simple, concise, and clear manner. RBB
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About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0195088786
• ISBN 13: 9780195088786
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 944
• Editor: Hall Kermit L., Clark David S., Ely James W., Grossman Joel B., Hull N. E. H.