Book Description
Jo M. Pasqualucci analyzes all aspects of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights' advisory and contentious jurisdiction and its provisional measures orders. She examines the Rules of Procedure of the Court and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, highlighting the important changes the Rules bring about in the inter-relationship of these organs. She also cites the effectiveness of the Convention and the Court's rulings in the domestic law of States Parties to the Convention.
Download Description
Jo M. Pasqualucci provides a comprehensive critique of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which is at once scholarly yet practical. She analyzes all aspects of the Court's advisory jurisdiction, contentious jurisdiction, and provisional measures orders. When relevant, she compares the practice and procedure of the Inter-American Court with that of the European Court of Human Rights, the International Court of Justice, and the United Nations Human Rights Committee. She also evaluates the Rules of Procedure of the Inter-American Court and the Inter-American Commission, which entered into force in May and June of 2001 and bring about important procedural changes in the inter-relationship of those organs. In addition, she cites the effectiveness of the Convention and the Court's rulings in the domestic law of the States Parties to the Convention. This book will provide an important resource for scholars, practitioners, and students of international human rights law and practice.
Book Description
In The Twilight of Democracy, Jennifer Van Bergen dissects the signs of something gone terribly wrong. A massive superstructure is being constructed, whose shape can be discerned by the 2000 election, the enactment of the PATRIOT Act, the detentions at Guantanamo, the invasion of Iraq, the withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, the promotion of the FTAA, the eradication of environmental protections, and a policy of increasing secrecy.
Jennifer Van Bergen helped raise the alarm with her six-part series "Repeal the Patriot Act." She is an adjunct faculty member of the New School for Social Research in NYC since 1993. She lectures on the antiterrorism laws and the Constitution.
Customer Reviews:
Twilight of Democracy.......2007-04-17
Jennifer Van Bergen has given us a book that should be must reading for every American. If you think we might be on our way towards a Fascist state in America, you need to read this book. Ms. Van Bergen explains how the PATRIOT Act has damaged the United States Constitution. She also tells us what we must do to correct the current state of America.
The book is very well done, in easy to understand language. This book should be on the reading list of every American.
ATHE DRIFT TO FASCISM IN AMERICA-YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!.......2006-06-03
Jennifer Van Bergen has written a most important book that is a must read for all Americans who cherish freedom.
Miss Van Bergen,a member of the ACLU and The National Lawyers Guild,is a most articulate spokesperson for the point of view that under the leadership of President Bush America is drifting slowly,but surely,toward a corporate state(read fascism).She points out that it is NOT only the so called "Patriot Act"that threathens the rights of Americans(circumventing the 4th amendment)but also such things as The North Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) and the lesser known The Free Trade of (the) Americas Agreement(FTAA),both of which deny benefits to the average person,curtails labor rights,but also hands over all kinds of new "rights" to "corporate bloodsuckers"(my term), so that they can continue to plunder the environment and enforce "wage slavery" on 90%+ of the population.She examines the state of the courts,and the three separate,but equal branches of our government,and with the GOP already claiming The Presidency and a having a majority in both houses of Congress the independence of the judiciary is in great question,and with the Democrats sitting back and allowing Bush to stack the courts with hard right thugs,the future of this country as a free democratic republic is in great jeopardy.For all their talk about opposing "judge made law",and being in favor of "strict construction"(original intent) the GOP members of Congress are making the road to fascism easier by NOT OPPOSING Bush's vision(as if he ever had a vision concerning anything)of a unitiary goverment,which if allowed to proceed will only lead to dictatorship,slavery,and death. Ms Van Bergen book was written before the (anti)immigration debate really started with its harsch provisions conerning "aid to illegal aliens".These provisions are so reactionary and hateful that key leaders of the Catholic Church(Cardinal Mahoney,of L.A.for one) urge Church members NOT to cooperate with these fear-mongering articles,of the new immigration bill.For once a Church leader standing up for the teachings of Jesus!
This 228 page book includes the very helpful Britt's List -the fourteen points common to fascist regimes,and "The Cheney Plan for Global Dominance,a truely frightening scenario.
As I write this CBS News reports that the governments wants all internet companies to keep the records of ALL internet users,in order to fight terrorism and sexual abuse cases.I sure believe that one!1984 is here!!
Ignorance is Strength.
Slavery is Freedom!
War is Peace!
This is an excellent book!!!
The government WANTS people scared and silent.......2005-08-18
An attorney with the South Florida Branch of the ACLU and an adjunct faculty member at the New School for Social Research, Jennifer Van Bergen understands that making the case for her position is essential to having the American people understand the danger which we and the country remain in.
Van Bergen uses factual evidence to demonstrate how the Bush administration is eliminating democracy under the guise of 'homeland security'. Using very loaded flag-waving rhetoric, this government is attempting to have people believe that any criticism of their actions is infact support for 'the terrorists'.
The problem is that 'the terrorists' are never actually identified and remain annoymous masses in this same scenario. After all, the real focus of the Bush administration is keeping people scared so many will not question the actions of their government and there is a greater chance that those who do dissent can be labeled as 'troublemakers'.
During the 1960's the federal government used 'red menace' rhetoric to justify the wiretapping and surveliance of left wing activists. The 'remote' possibility of communist infiltration (and subsequent social impacts) in these organizations were considered enough to justify the actions. Following Hoover's death, Congress placed long-needed restrictions on the FBI's ability to place American citizens under surveliance and made that information available through public request. To read the administration's support for the PATRIOT Act honestly feels like we are ignoring all of this history and failing to learn from the past.
This failure is also how a 'conservative' administration squares the obviously expanded bureacracy against their public promotion of limited government. PATRIOT Act expansions are a big exception to their usual rules specifically because the conservatives are the ones who are doing the government expansion and surveliance. The ultimate impact on citizen freedoms is secondary (if weighted at all) to the president and his buddies getting and maintaining their absolute power over everybody else.
The conclusions in this book are chilling---and ever more accurate with each passing day. It is an accessible read for people wanting affirmation that they are not reading into things, but is also important for audiences who need to know what their government is really doing.
Crushing Democracy on the Pretext of Saving It .......2005-06-21
The one point on which Jennifer Van Bergen as author of "Twilight of Democracy" and George W. Bush agree is over the assertion made by the latter that "America has been changed forever by the tragedy of 9-11." From that point forward Van Bergen, an attorney active in the South Florida branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, and Bush travel widely disparate ideological paths.
Van Bergen shrewdly delineates the path traveled by the Bush Administration in the wake of September 11, 2001 as it declared war against terrorism and sought to acquire powers held by chief executives in totalitarian states and denied them in democratic nations. Only Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California voted against granting the executive branch the sweeping powers it sought in the wake of 9-11 as the House and Senate voted in an otherwise unanimous manner.
One important point that Van Bergen makes that has been mentioned all too infrequently is that the entire war on terror announced by Bush after 9-11, and used as an immediate basis to launch a fierce military attack in Afghanistan, is predicated on spurious constitutional and common law grounds. In any military or police action a specific nation or organizational entity needs to be identified. Bush's war on terror does not meet that important criterion since its fails the specificity test.
As Van Bergen carefully delineates, by declaring war on a non-specific entity and stating that such a conflict has no measurable end in sight, the opportunity is ripe for an octopus-like executive branch to, in the interest of preserving democracy, bring about its demise in the interest of safeguarding the nation and its people from terrorism. The instrument of accomplishment was the infamous Patriot Act, which left the Bill of Rights in tatters.
The sweeping arm of the law swooped down on innocent citizens and aliens in America who were Arabs and practiced Islam. The umbrella expansiveness of the Patriot Act permitted them to arrest suspects without a warrant and detain them for non-specific periods of time without charging them. The dangerous abrogation of rights extended beyond this slippery slope and into the constitutional guarantee of right of counsel. In instances where attorneys were permitted to speak with such defendants, authorities were permitted to listen in on the conversations, rendering the privilege of counsel essentially null and void through destroying confidentiality. Again, these tactics are hallmarks of totalitarianism and anathema to democracy.
A tactic used to circumvent dealing with defendants in traditional constitutional circumstances is to declare any individual suspected of terrorist acts or giving support to terrorist groups as enemy combatants. This has been used in the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison to evade American constitutional or international safeguards such as the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Code. Democracy is denied on the pretext of saving the institution, a tragic contradiction through which freedoms have been trampled and America has come closer to representing apartheid South Africa than a constitutional democracy.
In addition to laying out the legal case against the usurpation of democracy by the Bush Administration, Van Bergen also lists fourteen basic points cited earlier by Lawrence W. Britt as dangerous common threads associated with Fascism.
They include such totalitarian hallmarks as excessive nationalism, media control, pervasive scapegoating, obsession with militarism and national security, protection of corporations and denial of workers' basic rights, obsession with crime and punishment, rampant cronyism and corruption, and fraudulent elections.
Americans should remember with caution the words spoken by Benjamin Franklin when he left Constitution Hall and was asked what kind of government had been bestowed on the new nation called America, t o which he responded, "A Republic if you can keep it."
"Down the road to fascism.".......2005-03-12
Author & lawyer Jennifer Van Bergen's thought provoking book "The Twilight of Democracy" "ferrets out principles of constitutional law and juxtaposes them with ... statutes, regulations, international laws, legal strategies and actions of the Bush administration." There's no love lost here for President Bush, and the author isn't shy about giving her personal opinion. With blistering criticism of the Bush administration, Van Bergen argues that America is well on the road to fascism, and that we are experiencing an erosion of democracy through a systematic attack on the constitution. Taking Laurence W. Britt's handy-dandy 14-point guide to fascism, Van Bergen systematically examines current trends in American political, social and legal systems.
The book is subdivided into two distinct categories: Book One "Deciphering the Democratic Code" and Book Two: "The Bush Plan." Book One is basically an overview of various aspects of the constitution, international law, due process, the 1st, 4th and 6th Amendments, types of courts, etc. In Book Two, the author tears into (amongst other things) the Patriot Act, America's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, the Abu Ghraib scandal, detentions in Guantanomo Bay, the coup in Haiti, and the Free Trade of Americas Agreement.
Of particular interest is Van Bergen's argument that there's a movement underfoot "to clear the way for the concept that 'activists = terrorists'." According to the author, it's all about the administration's goal to achieve "control, suppression, and eradication of opposition." And there are some mind-boggling examples here--including the "sailor-mongering" charge levied against the Greenpeace protestors, and the use of the Patriot Act against activists who simply express their beliefs. Van Bergen also touches on the Lynne Stewart case. Ms Stewart was the court-appointed attorney for Sheik Abdul Rahman, who was subjected to electronic surveillance, and her offices raided. This, Van Bergen argues, is a direct challenge to the Sixth Amendment rights. (Interestingly enough, after finishing the book, I looked up Stewart's case on the Internet, and I did discover that many in the legal profession are indeed concerned about exactly how one is supposed to represent a terrorist suspect after what happened to Stewart. I found many sites pro and con Stewart's case, and found it much more difficult to find out what she is actually accused of.)
The book also includes information about the MATRIX "data mining system" (Multistate Anti-TeRrorism Information exchange)--a system which according to the ACLU "is controversial because it involves not the attempt to learn more facts about known suspects, but mass scrutiny of the lives and activities of innocent people ... to see whether each of them shows any signs of being a terrorist or a criminal." The MATRIX creates a "terrorist quotient" that "measures the likelihood that individuals in the databases are terrorists." In theory, we could all have our own "High Terrorist Factor" (HTF). According to the author, those with the highest scores have their names passed on to such agencies as the INS, FBI, and the Secret Service. MATRIX is "financed and managed" by the Dept of Homeland Security. The book goes into detail about the MATRIX system, and the information here is startling. The ACLU states that the MATRIX system "constitutes a massive invasion of privacy, and a violation of the core democratic principles."
Another fascinating chapter is devoted to the Patriot Act, which, the author argues, allows the government to stomp on the Fourth Amendment (right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures). By redefining the standards of "terrorist investigations", categories are expanded and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Acts (FISA) allows investigators "without probable cause to get your library records, your educational, financial, or medical records as long as an FBI agent" claims the records are required "in connection with an ongoing foreign intelligence investigation."
The book finally, and appropriately ends with a chapter on torture and abuse, and the author touches on the historical significance of the Geneva Conventions (they were never called the Geneva Suggestions).
There's a mine of information here, and it's a good thing the author follows the text with scrupulous chapter-by-chapter notes. I'm not a lawyer, so I can't defend or oppose the merits of the legal arguments here, but I would be fascinated to see how lawyers feel about the book's arguments. As a non-lawyer, however, I can honestly say that I learned a great deal from reading this well-written, eye-opening book---displacedhuman
Book Description
Why do attempts by authoritarian regimes to legalize their political repression differ so dramatically? Why do some dispense with the law altogether, while others scrupulously modify constitutions, pass new laws, and organize political trials? Political (In)Justice answers these questions by comparing the legal aspects of political repression in three recent military regimes: Brazil (1964–1985); Chile (1973–1990); and Argentina (1976–1983). By focusing on political trials as a reflection of each regime’s overall approach to the law, Anthony Pereira argues that the practice of each regime can be explained by examining the long-term relationship between the judiciary and the military. Brazil was marked by a high degree of judicial-military integration and cooperation; Chile’s military essentially usurped judicial authority; and in Argentina, the military negated the judiciary altogether. Pereira extends the judicial-military framework to other authoritarian regimesâSalazar’s Portugal, Hitler’s Germany, and Franco’s Spainâand a democracy (the United States), to illuminate historical and contemporary aspects of state coercion and the rule of law.
Book Description
Michel Gobat deftly interweaves political, economic, cultural, and diplomatic history to analyze the reactions of Nicaraguans to U.S. intervention in their country from the heyday of Manifest Destiny in the mid–nineteenth century through the U.S. occupation of 1912–33. Drawing on extensive research in Nicaraguan and U.S. archives, Gobat accounts for two seeming paradoxes that have long eluded historians of Latin America: that Nicaraguans so strongly embraced U.S. political, economic, and cultural forms to defend their own nationality against U.S. imposition and that the country’s wealthiest and most Americanized elites were transformed from leading supporters of U.S. imperial rule into some of its greatest opponents.
Gobat focuses primarily on the reactions of the elites to Americanization, because the power and identity of these Nicaraguans were the most significantly affected by U.S. imperial rule. He describes their adoption of aspects of âthe American way of lifeâ in the mid–nineteenth century as strategic rather than wholesale. Chronicling the U.S. occupation of 1912–33, he argues that the anti-American turn of Nicaragua’s most Americanized oligarchs stemmed largely from the efforts of U.S. bankers, marines, and missionaries to spread their own version of the American dream. In part, the oligarchs’ reversal reflected their anguish over the 1920s rise of Protestantism, the âmodern woman,â and other âvices of modernityâ emanating from the United States. But it also responded to the unintended ways that U.S. modernization efforts enabled peasants to weaken landlord power. Gobat demonstrates that the U.S. occupation so profoundly affected Nicaragua that it helped engender the Sandino Rebellion of 1927–33, the Somoza dictatorship of 1936–79, and the Sandinista Revolution of 1979–90.
Customer Reviews:
Exhaustive.......2007-05-10
If you REALLY want to know about the USA involvement in Nicaragua read this book. One comes away with a clear picture of the years 1912 through 1933 in Nicaragua. To be even better the book could have explored the position of the middle and worker class but information is scarce. All in all one of the best books written on this era in Central America
Book Description
Sixty years ago, the United States and Great Britain spearheaded efforts to create a new world order based on international rules. Today these two nations are leading the charge to disregard the very global safeguards they once fought to establish. In this eye-opening book, international lawyer Philippe Sands explains why this radical policy shift has occurred and how it will affect twenty-first-century world politics.
Using the events of September 11 and the subsequent “war on terror” as justification, the Bush administration has turned its back on many international agreements governing basic human rights, war, torture, the environment, and free trade, with Tony Blair often colluding. Focusing on watershed events such as the repudiation of the Kyoto Protocol and the abuses at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, Sands argues that the United States and Britain are undermining international law at the precise moment when it has become most essential.
Crisp, impassioned, and hard hitting, Lawless World is at once an exposé and an indictment of a catastrophic realignment of the laws that govern international affairs.
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic Analysis of Current Events vis-a-vis International Law.......2007-07-23
This in-depth analysis of today's new world order through the lens of international law provides great information and research especially on international trade--with really interesting implications related to global warming--and the Iraq war and its 'torturous' aftermath. International law is being thoroughly abused, which is concerning considering it represents a minimum standards of acceptable behavior.
Why should George Bush be impeached? Read this book. If President Bush or Vice President Cheney are complicit or participate in torture, which they are, they could be tried as a criminal under a plethora of international and domestic laws. Why is international law important? Read the global warming chapter.
This is a great book for anyone regardless of ones familiarity or professional interest in law. It would be a great addition to a university's introductory international law course.
Makes a horribly complex and convoluted subject understandable.......2007-06-09
I found Sands' book to be a very readable and enlightening work. I do not have any experience with law and knew almost nothing of international law but still found the information in this book to be very accessible and easy to understand. Usually whenever I read anything on law my biggest battle is trying to stay conscious.
The main thing I took away from this work is just how tenuous the rule of international law is in today's volatile world. The amount of influence that the United States wields as the world's only remaining super power is out of proportion with the needs of the world. International laws unsupported by the U.S. are useless, and if the UN and the other mechanisms (such as the ICC) created to impose law, order, human rights and protect the environment continue to be opposed or actively obstructed by the U.S. there will never be any peace based on world consensus. The U.S. must stop seeking to extend its hegemony into further areas and allow its power and influence to recede so that there can be more equality.
The opposition to international law in the U.S. is not confined to one political party or the other because both parties have attempted to extend the U.S. dominance in the world. One nation cannot be above all others if any type of international system is to be affective.
This book is an easy to read eye opener. If you are looking for an accessible guide to what is happening in international law then this is the book for you.
Fascinating, though provocative look at America's (mis)use of International Law.......2006-11-25
Philippe Sands book is a sort-of introduction to International Law. He definitely has a bias and an agenda, namely to point out America's, particularly the Bush administration's, arbitrary use of International law and its vitriolic disdain for International law. This is shown as especially ironic in light of the fact that America, together with the UK, brought about the modern International legal order, including human rights, trade, environmental, and other stuff that's hated by many in the USA. This book will prove stimulating to both lawyers and non-lawyers. It will make most feel a deep distress over America's current attitute towards international law and international institutions.
For college-level collections strong in human rights issues and global politics........2006-04-28
The 'war on terror' is misconceived and bound to fail, says lawyer Philippe Sands in LAWLESS WORLD: AMERICA AND THE MAKING AND BREAKING OF GLOBAL RULES FROM FDR'S ATLANTIC CHARTER TO GEORGE BUSH'S ILLEGAL WAR. He describes how in the process of conducting its war the Bush administration ignored or broke the rules on many international agreements governing basic human rights, war, and free trade; and he provides a survey of similar international events and international rules governing trade, finances, human rights and the use of force. Especially recommended for college-level collections strong in human rights issues and global politics.
Wait for the update, or order from AMAZON.UK.......2006-04-06
Regarding the reviewer that bemoaned AMAZOM's failure to send him the latest edition, please note that I saw Philippe Sands being interviewed a couple of weeks ago, and he'd mentioned that the latest revision (with latest revelations and insights) was indeed already available in the United Kingdom, but _not_ yet in the USA. If you check Barnes & Noble and Buy.com, they are also still carrying the October 2005 edition. You will want the February 3, 2006 edition (ISBN: 0141017996), which you can order now from the AMAZON.UK website, or wait until it comes out in the USA (which will have therefore a later publication date than Feb. 3rd). Note, if you contact any of the sustomer service reps at these online booksellers, they can promise you the latest edition, but only to the best of their knowledge, and since they rarely have info on future release dates of many books (high-anticipation books like Harry Potter and the latest Stephen King being the exception) they are going to send you the latest edition that they actually have, which in this instance is the October 2005 edition. I face this regularly with one of my favorite authors (Paul Watkins), whose works come out in the U.K. many months prior to their USA releases.
Average customer rating:
- Excellently written, but read with caution.
- Biased, unbalanced, conservative...complete garbage
- anti-Southern bigotry notwithstanding, a thorough attack
- A Highly Relevant Expose
- Clear and Direct
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The Rule of Lawyers: How the New Litigation Elite Threatens America's Rule of Law
Walter K. Olson
Manufacturer: Truman Talley Books
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ASIN: 0312280858 |
Book Description
Big-ticket litigation is a way of life in this country. But something new is afoot--something typified by the $246 billion tobacco settlement, and by courtroom assaults that have followed against industries ranging from HMOs to gunmakers, from lead paint manufacturers to "factory farms." Each massive class-action suit seeks to invent new law, to ban or tax or regulate something that elected lawmakers had chosen to leave alone. And each time the new process works as intended, the new litigation elite reaps billions in fees--which they invest in fresh rounds of suits, as well as political contributions. The Rule of Lawyers asks: Who picks these lawyers, and who can fire them? Who protects the public's interest when settlements are negotiated behind closed doors? Where are our elected lawmakers in all this?The answers may determine whether we slip from the rule of law to the rule of lawyers. AUTHORBIO: WALTER K. OLSON is the author of The Litigation Explosion (1991). A senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, Olson has written on law and lawyers for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, City Journal, and others. He lives and works in Chappaqua, NY.
Customer Reviews:
Excellently written, but read with caution........2007-07-26
Walter Olson, as other reviewers have noted, is biased. He is a pro-business conservative who works for pro-business causes. This book, as other reviewers have noted, does not address the corrupt nature of corporations or their lack of accountability to the consumer.
On the other hand, those points have nothing to do with his thesis: that a small elite of plantiff trial lawyers, using government influence and sloppy law, have turned the civil justice system of the United States into a gigantic blackmail machine for their own enrichment. Olson supports this thesis with chapter after devastating chapter showing how nepotism, abuse of class action, junk science, the triumph of emotion over fact, and above all the ability to sue without any grounds whatever without any consequences have destroyed justice in the civil system.
Olsen offers several solutions to these abuses. He proposes instituting European standards for civil suits- that is, the loser pays all the winner's legal costs. He proposes a ban on percentage-of-settlement contingency fees. He proposes massive class action tort reform- under the current system class action lawyers win massive payoffs while their clients, who generally don't even KNOW they're clients, at most get a coupon for a product they no longer want. Most of all, he calls on his readers to be aware of the issues of tort reform in the political arena- an awareness made all the more necessary by the prevalence of trial lawyers in legislative office and the massive campaign donations trial lawyers give to establishment officials.
Don't take everything in this book as gospel, and certainly question Olson's bias. Even after doing so, the simple facts in the book demonstrate beyond doubt that corrupt lawyers not only use the system to their own advantage, but in so doing endanger the freedom of all Americans- particularly the freedom from judicial extortion.
Biased, unbalanced, conservative...complete garbage.......2006-09-10
This book is terrible on multiple levels. Rather than discuss tort litigation with a balanced approach, and then leading to a "tort litigation is bad" conclusion, it starts with the premise that tort litigation is bad and goes downhill from there.
Everything, including facts, discussion, opinion, and analysis, is biased. For example, attorney generals who are true consumer advocate hawks (e.g., Eliot Spitzer) are deemed "hyperactive"; referring to an associate of Ralph Nader as the "chief pot stirrer" who has a "relentlessly accusatory public persona" and is "always on the attack." His bias is also subtle. In one instance, he sings the praises of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), which found evidence that silicon [...] implants do not expose patients of rheumatic disease. This is a subtle slight of hand because Olson conveniently forgets to point out that the ACR has a vested interest in funding and/or publishing research that leads to this conclusion (there is NO way the ACR would publish a paper leading to the conclusion its practictioners have been partially responsible for the poisoning of thousands of women; it is a peer group made up of practictioners!!!).
Olson demonizes specific targets that suspiciously reflect those of conservatives. The media, trial lawywers, consumer watchdogs, etc., are deemed evil. The media (read: the "liberal" media) perpetuates tort scares, and serves as the unwitting (or witting) accomplices to the plaintiff's bar. Apparently, Olson has never watched Fox "News" or "far and balanced" idiots like O'Reilly. Ralph Nader is also attacked endlessly. Nader made his mark in the 1970's bringing the Pinto class action against Ford. Olson mentions the suit, but fails to look into the deeper issues of corporate responsibility, the fact that individual claimants cannot individually match the resources of Ford in bringing the suit, etc. Consumer advocates are painted as being in the pocket of the plaintiff's bar, needlessly aggressive, unscrupulous, etc. Olson's ideology defies common sense. Does he actually believe Enron was a good thing, or that Consumer Reports is a bad thing? His approach inescapably leads to this illogical conclusion.
What becomes evident are those things that are "good." Corporations are revered, and good for America; their executives would never choose profits over ethics. In Olson's world, there is no such thing as inequality of resources in bringing suit (which the class action suit can help remedy). In his world, medical malpractice damages caps are welcome, but liability premium caps by insurers (to doctors) are not.
Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of his ideological approach to "tort reform" is his failure to recognize what tort law does, and that many tort lawyers are ethical and truly care about the well-being of their clients. For example, he fails to discuss that products, although made by responsible individuals and/or corporations, sometimes have defects that when the conditions are right, can lead to truly disasterous results. Instead, he pontificates about how products like the Pinto had a comparatively safe record. This is NOT the point. The point is that the single defect that makes it hideously dangerous should be corrected. If the defect is not fixed (e.g., not cost effective), the ONLY avenue to remedy this problem is to bring suit. In Olson's world, this is a bad thing; a person who is harmed by a corporation that produces a dangerous product should not be able to bring suit against that corporation. Olson fails to realize that the corporation saves money for not correcting the product, while the person harmed may be straddled with debilitating injuries and medical bills. Apparently, in his world, this inequity is a just result; "buyer beware" is the only warranty that should be permitted. Likewise, in his world, a lawyer who brings a suit against the corporation is, by default, greedy and evil. Again, he fails to know (or discuss) that bring suits are VERY expensive, and plaintiff's lawyers take enormous financial risks to bring such suits. It never seems to dawn on Olson that damages plaintiff lawyers receive are offset by costs to bring suit, similar to "net profits" to a company. In Olson's world, such lawyers should be paupers and should take any such risks without any form of compensation. His logic is moronic.
In short, Olson is a tool of the insurance industry and conservative ideology. He only presents a one-sided view of the issues, and does not give the discussion (or the plaintiff's bar) any form of respect. If you would like a meaningful discussion of tort law and litigation, avoid this book, and its author, like the plague.
anti-Southern bigotry notwithstanding, a thorough attack.......2005-05-31
In The Rule of Lawyers, Walter Olson describes how a Southern "Jackpot Belt" from South Carolina to Texas awards ridiculous damages against "foreign corporations." Olson perceives the slick trial lawyers as taking advantage of parochial, bigoted jurors in what others might call the "Bible Belt." Such jurors, whom Olson derides as "the few, the proud, the ill-informed," (p. 245) are ignorant participants in a massive "get-rich-quick" scheme that redistributes corporate wealth to greedy lawyers with political ties.
Of course, Olson does not wittingly insult conservative Southerners. From his vantage at the Manhattan Institute, he charitably acknowledges their "fabled hospitality" (p. 209) while striving to arouse their fervor against lawyers who might pose beneath a "picture of a naked lady" (p. 74). Yet when Olson suggests Midwestern and Southern jurors are particularly susceptible to "junk science" sold by slick lawyers to ignorant, bigoted, rural folks in asbestos, breast-implant, automotive, tobacco, and other litigation, one wonders why they wouldn't take umbrage.
All the expected pellets are fired in this barrage of grapeshot against the plaintiff's bar: the lawyers fly around in private airplanes (much like the corporate executives they sue), they profit tremendously from their trade (much like the corporations they sue), and they lobby politicians (much like the corporations they sue). While seeking a quick buck, the slick lawyers stretch and break the law (much like the corporations they sue). These dastardly characters are not to be trusted (much like...).
As Olson tells it, a couple of corporations may have done a few bad deeds, but Southerners in the "Jackpot Belt" punish the guilty and innocent alike. As he tells it, corporations would never hurt a fly, let alone kill a human being by hiding hidden risks in a dangerous product. When Swiss banks benefit from the Holocaust, Olson turns a blind eye; but if American corporations benefited from the slave-trade, Olson writhes with anger at the greedy lawyers seeking a quick buck for seeking reparations.
Notwithstanding the anti-Southern bigotry which a casual reader might overlook by failing to connect the dots between the chapters, the book inventories all the slurs available against the plaintiff's lawyers. Olson merits a quick glance, in case one failed to realize that slick lawyers earn money by winning lawsuits. For fairness or balance, look elsewhere.
A Highly Relevant Expose.......2004-07-12
Walter Olson's The Rule of Lawyers is a highly relevant book for our ever more litigious society. In a well-written 307 pages, Olson presents a scathing indictment of what he refers to as "the Fourth Branch of Government"- trial lawyers. Olson clearly and persuasively argues in this book against the tort industry- beginning the book with a history of how our nation has allowed open season on a variety of industries- tobacco, car manufacturers, and gun manufacturers (among others) and walks the reader through the various campaigns the litigation elite have waged against Dow Corning, asbestos suppliers, and others. Olson also examines other litigation phenomena such as how TV newsmagazines act as mouthpieces for trial attorneys and how attorneys manipulate our jury system to achieve huge verdicts for their clients. Particularly interesting to me was the chapter entitled "The Jackpot Belt" where Olson analyzes trends in jury awards in states from Texas to Florida (the Jackpot Belt supposedly stretches from Beaumont to Pensacola) where juries have been especially generous in punitive damage awards.
I would recommend this book for anyone from lawyers, to law students or even to the layperson with an interest in this subject. Olson avoids technical, complex language and jargon and the book is highly readable.
Clear and Direct.......2004-02-13
Walter Olsen has done a fine job of analyzing the inherent conflict of interest between the legal profession and Justice and the threat it posses to the ideals of Democracy.
Even those who support our odd system of civil justice will find things to think about.
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2004 Presidential Election Electoral College Battleground, Bush versus Kerry ¿ Your Complete Guide to the Contested Election ¿ Laws, Rules, and Court Cases on Recounts, Challenges, Voting Equipment, Ballots, Help America Vote Act (HAVA) and the Federal Election Commission, Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights and Disenfranchisement, Provisional Ballots, Voter Fraud and Intimidation, Military and Overseas Ballots, Florida 2000 Recount and Supreme Court Cases (DVD-ROM)
U.S. Government
Manufacturer: Progressive Management
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: DVD-ROM
ASIN: 1592481884 |
Book Description
This up-to-date and comprehensive DVD-ROM provides an exhaustive, authoritative, and unique collection of documents about American election procedures, voting, and balloting, including special material about the 2004 Presidential election and the Electoral College, with over 200,000 pages and nearly 4 gigabytes of material. There is a wealth of information pertinent to laws, rules, and court cases on disputed election results, ballot recounts, court challenges, ballots and voting equipment, undervotes, overvotes, civil rights and disenfranchisement, provisional ballots, voter fraud and intimidation, and military and overseas ballots. We have also included the entire contents of our CD-ROM title on the Florida 2000 Bush versus Gore election recount cases with full Supreme Court coverage (which sells separately). Every aspect of the Supreme Court cases is covered - petitions, oral argument transcripts, briefs, and opinions.
There is detailed coverage of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), the Voting Rights Act and the enforcement activities of the Department of Justice, the work of the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), and the Office of Special Counsel related to the Hatch Act. Coverage of the Federal Election Commission is notably thorough, with complete information on campaign finance reports, reporting forms and filing information, historical demographic statistics and reports, constitutional and statutory provisions, regulations and reports on the Bipartisan Campaign Reform of Act of 2002 (BCRA, McCain-Feingold), political parties, voter registration (including the Voter Registration Act - Motor Voter) and much more. This DVD-ROM uses next-generation search technology that allows complete indexing and makes all PDF files on the disc fully searchable. The massive scope of this material is truly awesome!
In addition, there are historical voting tables from Congressional elections, and election statistics gathered by the House from 1920 to 2002; House lobbying disclosure forms, and Senate election material.
In all, the disc has an incredible total of over 200,000 pages reproduced using Adobe Acrobat PDF software - allowing direct viewing on Windows and Apple Macintosh systems. Reader software is included on the disc. Advanced search and indexing features are built into our reproduction, providing a complete full-text index. This enables the user to search all the PDF files on the disc at one time for words or phrases using just one search command! The Acrobat cataloging technology adds enormous value and uncommon functionality to this impressive collection of government documents and material. There is no other reference format that is as fast, convenient, comprehensive, and portable!
Our discs are privately-compiled collections of official public domain U.S. government files and documents - they are not produced by the federal government. They are designed to provide a convenient user-friendly reference work, utilizing the benefits of the Acrobat format to uniformly present thousands of pages that can be rapidly reviewed, searched, or printed without untold hours of tedious searching and downloading. Vast archives of important public domain government information that might otherwise remain inaccessible are available for instant review no matter where you are.
This DVD-ROM is for use in a computer DVD drive. The files can be accessed from the File Explorer in the same way that you open files from a CD-ROM disc; the CD-ROM and DVD-ROM formats are functionally the same, but the DVD has more than six times greater storage capacity. Of course, these discs CANNOT be "played" in a DVD player connected to a television set. They contain computer-formatted data, not video.
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Home Rule in America : A Fifty-State Handbook
Dale Krane ,
Platon N. Rigos , and
Melvin B. Hill
Manufacturer: Congressional Quarterly Books
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ASIN: 1568022816 |
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Reports of scandal and corruption have led to the downfall of numerous political leaders in Latin America in recent years. What conditions have developed that allow for the exposure of wrongdoing and the accountability of leaders? Enforcing the Rule of Law examines how elected officials in Latin American democracies have come under scrutiny from new forms of political control, and how these social accountability mechanisms have been successful in counteracting corruption and the limitations of established institutions.
This volume reveals how legal claims, media interventions, civic organizations, citizen committees, electoral observation panels, and other watchdog groups have become effective tools for monitoring political authorities. Their actions have been instrumental in exposing government crime, bringing new issues to the public agenda, and influencing or even reversing policy decisions.
Enforcing the Rule of Law presents compelling accounts of the emergence of civic action movements and their increasing political influence in Latin America, and sheds new light on the state of democracy in the region.
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See You in Court: How the Right Made America a Lawsuit Nation
Thomas Geoghegan
Manufacturer: New Press
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The Law in Shambles
ASIN: 1595580999 |
Book Description
A powerful new argument that right-wing legal policy gives Americans no recourse but to sue one another, by the National Book Critics Circle Award nominee.
Since the dawn of the Reagan era, America's traditional legal structures have been gradually undermined, replaced by a kind of legal rage that has led to an explosion in the number of lawsuits. Why do Americans sue each other as often as we do and how has this basic rift in our civic trust come to pass?
In an impassioned rebuttal to books such as Philip K. Howard's The Death of Common Sense, which argue that liberals have made the United States overly litigious, public-interest lawyer and award-winning author Thomas Geoghegan explains why these books have it backwards. In reality, Geoghegan argues, it is the conservative revolution that opened the floodgates of litigation and helped to spur the lawsuit culture that Howard and others decry. According to Geoghegan, the country's current addiction to litigation and the need to find someone wrong is a natural response to the right's dismantling of America's postwar legal system—a system based on contract, trust, and administrative law, in which it was not necessary to go to court in order to stay solvent, keep your job, or recover from an accident.
Sure to provoke heated debate, See You in Court shows why the right is wrong about the source of our lawsuit culture, and points the way back to civil society.
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