Adapted from its parent volume Education Law, 5th Edition, this accessible text concisely introduces topics in law that are most relevant to teachers. Providing public school teachers with the legal knowledge necessary to do their jobs, A Teacher’s Guide to Education Law covers issues of student rights, discipline, negligence, discrimination, special education, teacher rights, hiring and firing, contracts, unions, collective bargaining, and tenure.Special...

Education Law, Sixth Edition provides a comprehensive survey of the legal problems and issues confronting school leaders, teachers, and policymakers today. Court cases accompanied by explanation and analysis can help aspiring educators understand the subtlety and richness of the law. Accordingly, each of the 12 thematic chapters begins with an overview, concludes with a summary, and balances an explanation of the important principles of education law with actual court decisions to...

A distinguished and experienced appellate court judge, Posner offers in this new book a unique and, to orthodox legal thinkers, a startling perspective on how judges and justices decide cases.

For Richard Posner, legal formalism and formalist judges--notably Antonin Scalia--present the main obstacles to coping with the dizzying pace of technological advance. Posner calls for legal realism--gathering facts, considering context, and reaching a sensible conclusion that inflicts little collateral damage on other areas of the law.

The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Constitutional Law presents an accessible introduction to the enduring topics of American constitutional law, including judicial review, methods of interpretation, federalism, separation of powers, equal protection, and individual liberties. One of the most important functions performed by the American Constitution and the more than two centuries' worth of cases interpreting it is the allocation of decision-making. Professor Dorf and Professor...

Judges and legal scholars talk past one another, if they have any conversation at all. Academics couch their criticisms of judicial decisions in theoretical terms, which leads many judges—at the risk of intellectual stagnation—to dismiss most academic discourse as opaque and divorced from reality. In Divergent Paths, Richard Posner turns his attention to this widening gap within the legal profession, reflecting on its causes and consequences and asking what can be done to close or...

There are three general models of Supreme Court decision making: the legal model, the attitudinal model and the strategic model. But each is somewhat incomplete. This book advances an integrated model of Supreme Court decision making that incorporates variables from each of the three models. In examining the modern Supreme Court, since Brown v. Board of Education, the book argues that decisions are a function of the sincere preferences of the justices, the nature of precedent, and the deve...

The strong nexus between law and social work is beyond dispute: the law informs day-to-day social work practice and administration, and social workers are employed by the courts. Moreover, they work collaboratively with attorneys in legal aid offices, public defenders'offices, and other law enforcement settings, interviewing clients, preparing reports for use in court, interpreting social science information, and providing consultation on how best to approach client problems. This book add...

The role that precedent plays in constitutional decision making is a perennially divisive subject among scholars of law and American politics. The debate rages over both empirical and normative aspects of the issue: To what extent are the Supreme Court, Congress, and the executive branch constrained by precedent? To what extent should they be? Taking up a topic long overdue for comprehensive treatment, Michael Gerhardt connects the vast social science data and legal scholarship to provide ...

From the ancient origins of Just War doctrine to utilitarian and retributive theories of punishment, concepts of proportionality have long been an instrumental part of the rule of law and an essential check on government power. These concepts all embody the fundamental value that government and private actions should not be demonstrably excessive relative to their moral and practical justifications. In the American legal system, despite frequent though unacknowledged use of proportionality...

First Amendment Rights: An Encyclopedia provides both historical information and current, 21st-century topics in First Amendment issues. Volume 1 addresses the subject through the lens of past decisions and precedent, updated to include controversies between new social media and civil liberties. Volume 2 examines the current state of First Amendment rights, addressing the changes in interpretations of the First Amendment by the Roberts Court as well as in-vogue issues such as Occup...

This book differs from anything you have ever read about the nation and its Supreme Court. The book is not written from or in promotion of any political or ideological position. The author categorically denies having an agenda other than to allow you to enlighten yourself as to why the nation is the way it is today, and the role the Supreme Court has played. Reported opinions based on cases actually heard and ruled upon by the high Court are used as the underlying substance of this work, t...