JURIST: Books-on-Law is edited by Ronald K.L. Collins and David Skover of the Seattle University School of Law

Editorial Consultants:

Closed Chambers continues to be widely noticed.  See, for example, Marcia Coyle, "Interview with Edward Lazarus," National Law Journal, June 1, 1998, sec. A, p. 10; Stephen J. Wermiel, 84 American Bar Association Journal 94 (June 1998); Doug Ireland, The Nation, June 15/22, 1998; Daniel E. Troy, National Review, June 1, 1998, p. 55; Lawrence R. Velvel, Washington Post, June 15, 1998, sec. D, p. 2; Gretchin Croft Rubin, Washington Post, June 17, 1998, sec. A, p. 27; Stanley I. Kutler, Chicago Tribune, June 21, 1998, p. 3; David Gergen interview, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, June 16, 1998; and C-SPAN Booknotes interview, June 14, 1998. Beyond what is said here, Mr. Lazarus continues to stand up to his critics, as in his recent op. ed. "The Supreme Court Must Bear Scrutiny", Washington Post, July 6, 1998, sect.A, p. 19.

The Book Review section in this issue features "Two Takes on MacKinnon & Dworkin."  That is, we invited two reviewers -- Robert Jensen (University of Texas Journalism) and Wendy McElroy (noted author) -- to write separate and very different reviews of In Harm's Way: The Pornography Civil Rights Hearing (Harvard University Press, 1997), edited by Catharine A. MacKinnon & Andrea Dworkin.

Additionally, this issue of Books-on-Law features M. Ethan Katsh's review of Mike Godwin's just-released Cyber Rights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age (Time Books, 1998).  Also in the free speech category (albeit on the historical side) is Melvin I. Urofsky's review of David M. Rabban's Free Speech in Its Forgotten Years (Cambridge University Press, 1997).

Other reviews focus on books regarding jurisprudence, legal writing, mental health law, and media law.  Enjoy!

This October, Times Books (Random House) will publish Juan Williams's long-awaited biography, Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary (512 pp. of text, 16 pp. of photos).  Williams, a national correspondent for the Washington Post, is the author of the highly-acclaimed Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 (Viking, 1987).  The forthcoming biography covers a wide-range of Marshall's life -- from his glamorous Harlem days to the time he was nearly lynched; from his clashes with Dr. King, Robert Kennedy, and Malcom X to his secret and controversial relationship with J. Edgar Hover; from his uninhibited times with Cab Calloway to his uninhibited (but differently so) times with Warren Burger.

One of the hallmarks of the First Amendment is that "it frustrates everybody." That, at least, is how Stephen Carter (Yale Law) puts it in his Dissent of the Governed (Harvard University Press, 1998).  By that measure, Derrick Bell (New York University Law) is free speech personified.  He knows how to rankle the best and the brightest.  Take, for example, his recently published commentary on Randall Kennedy's Race, Crime, and the Law (Pantheon Books, 1997).   Writing in New Politics (vol. VII, issue # 1, Summer, 1998, pp. 55-68), Professor Bell spares no adjectives as he critiques Professor Randall Kennedy (Harvard Law) and his work: "It is as though he is a visiting scholar from Mars whose report on our criminal justice system is based on interviewing mainly white conservatives on the subject."  Bell portrays Kennedy as an "apologist" for today's often racist criminal justice system; as one willing to relinquish a "much-needed advocacy role" in favor of making claims which "serve to comfort many whites and distress blacks;" and as someone who openly challenges "the need and value of Critical Race Theory."  The essay closes on an equally impassioned note: "Come home, Randy! We advocates of racial justice need you on our side, not in our way."

Earlier this year, the Harvard Law Review published several commentaries on Professor Kennedy's Race, Crime, and the Law. See 111 Harvard Law Review 1256 passim.  Professor Bell's latest book is Afrolantica Legacies (Third World Press, 1998).

Coming in late November or December is Steven Shiffrin's Dissent, Injustice, and the Meanings of America (Princeton University Press, 1999 pub. date).    In this forthcoming book, the Cornell law professor (and Books-on-Law Board member) returns to his favorite First Amendment theme -- dissent.  That theme received "romantic" attention in Shiffrin's last book, The First Amendment, Democracy, and Romance (Harvard University Press, 1990, reprinted by Princeton University Press).  There, the heroic figure was Ralph Waldo Emerson, the man whom Shiffrin argued could teach us more about the great principles of free speech than Justice Holmes.  Of those great principles, Shiffrin wrote: "if the First Amendment is to have a single organizing symbol, let it be the image of the dissenter."  That theme is explored in a variety of new ways in Dissent, Injustice, and the Meanings of America.

"Is it possible that our pursuit of personal rights is driving our country toward moral collapse?"  To that question -- raised by conservatives such as Robert Bork and liberals such as Michael Sandel -- Samuel E. Walker responds with a resounding "no!"  Walker, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska, makes his case in The Rights Revolution: Rights and Community in Modern America (Oxford University Press), coming this September.  The rights revolution, says Walker, is the "embodiment of American ideals and community."   In the forthcoming work, Professor Walker responds to critiques from communitarians such Mary Ann Glendon (Harvard Law), critical race theorists such as Charles Lawrence and Mari Matsuda (Georgetown Law), anti- pornography feminists such as Catharine MacKinnon (University of Michigan/Chicago Law), conservatives such as Judge Robert Bork, and civic republicans such as Cass Sunstein (University of Chicago Law).

Professor Walker, you may recall, is the author of In Defense of American Liberties: A History of the ACLU (Oxford University Press, 1990) and Hate Speech: The History of an American Controversy (University of Nebraska Press, 1994).

The August issue of Books-on-Law will consist of a lengthy and challenging Question & Answer exchange (titled "Reason & Radicalism") with University of Minnesota law professors David A. Farber and Suzanna Sherry, concerning their recent book Beyond All Reason: The Radical Assault on Truth in American Law (Oxford University Press, 1997).  Given the book's wide notice and potential for "uninhibited, robust, and wide-open" discourse, we decided to invite several legal scholars to read Beyond All Reason and thereafter to prepare questions to which the authors might reply, or begin to reply.  In addition to the editors of Books-on-Law, the other questioners are: Nancy S. Marder, associate professor of law at the University of Southern California; John O. McGinnis, professor of law, Yeshiva University, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law; and John Henry Schlegel, professor of law, State University of New York at Buffalo.

Ronald K.L. Collins & David M. Skover, Editors, Books-on-Law

—————————————————————————————
JURIST: Books-on-Law™ is edited by Ronald K.L. Collins and David M. Skover of the Seattle University School of Law.

Board of Editorial Consultants: Raj Bhala, George Washington University Law School; Miriam Galston, George Washington University Law School; Kermit Hall, Ohio State University College of Law; Yale Kamisar, University of Michigan Law School; Lisa G. Lerman, Catholic University of America School of Law; David M. O'Brien, University of Virginia Department of Government and Foreign Affairs; Judith Resnik, Yale Law School; Edwin L. Rubin, University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall); Steven H. Shriffrin, Cornell Law School; Nadine Strossen, New York Law School; David B. Wilkins, Harvard Law School.

Administrative Assistant for Books-on-Law: Ms. Nancy Ammons

© Ronald K.L. Collins and David Skover, 1998. —————————————————————————————
JURIST: The Law Professors' Network™ is directed by Professor Bernard J. Hibbitts, Associate Dean for Communications & Information Technology, University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, in consultation with an international Advisory Board. E-mail JURIST at JURIST@law.pitt.edu.

© Bernard J. Hibbitts, 1998. All rights reserved. These pages may not be copied, reposted, or republished, in whole or in part, electronically or in print, without express written permission.

NOTICE
JURIST regrets that it cannot provide legal advice. For assistance with specific legal problems, please consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction.
—————————————————————————————