| Edition |
First edition. |
| Description |
xxxvii, 504 pages ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 390-489) and index. |
| Contents |
Preface: The exception is the rule -- The value of law : more than just a nuisance -- Jurisprudence : making and breaking law -- Legal education : the school as scandal -- Legislatures : outsourced sausage-making -- Bureaucracy : empire by form -- Judges : robots, umpires, or gods? -- Arbitration : privatized justice -- Legal economics : putting a price on priceless -- Prosecutors and defenders : angels of vengeance and mercy -- Police : the thick blue line -- Proof : the evidence for evidence -- Remedies : how many wrongs make a right? -- Failing from the top down : imperial presidencies and constitutional erosion -- Conclusion: Proposals modest and otherwise -- Appendix: A binding illustration of why people hate the law. |
| Summary |
An examination of how over the past eighty years the legal system has increasingly confused quantity with quality and might with legitimacy. As the law bloats into chaos, it staggers only by excusing itself from the very commands it insists that we obey, leaving Americans victim to arbitrary, unconstitutional power. By examining the system as a whole, Gibney shows that the tragedies often portrays as isolated mistakes or the work of a few bad actors--police misconduct, prosecutorial overreach, and the outrages of imperial presidencies--are really the inevitable consequences of law's descent into lawlessness. |
| Subject |
Law -- United States.
|
|
Justice, Administration of -- United States.
|
|
Criminal justice, Administration of -- United States.
|
|
United States -- Politics and government.
|
|
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Sociology -- General.
|
|
Criminal justice, Administration of. (OCoLC)fst00883246
|
|
Law. (OCoLC)fst00993678
|
|
United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
|
| ISBN |
9780316475266 (hardcover) |
|
0316475262 (hardcover) |
|
9780316475529 (ebook) |
|
