Privacy Revisited

Ronald J. Krotoszynski, Jr. (Univ. of Alabama), Privacy Revisited: A Global Perspective on the Right to Be Left Alone (Oxford Univ. Press 2016). 

"Rapid technological change, the advent of Big Data, and the creation of society-wide government surveillance programs have transformed the accessibility of highly personal information; these developments have highlighted the ambiguous treatment of privacy and personal intimacy. National legal systems vouchsafe and define 'privacy,' and its first cousin 'dignity,' in different ways that reflect local legal and cultural values. Yet, in an increasingly globalized world, purely local protection of privacy interests may prove insufficient to safeguard effectively fundamental autonomy interests - interests that lie at the core of self-definition, personal autonomy, and freedom." 
—Publisher's description

The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective (5th ed.)

Roger Hood & Carolyn Hoyle (University of Oxford), The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective (Oxford University Press, 5th ed. 2015).


"The fifth edition of this highly praised study charts and explains the progress that continues to be made towards the goal of worldwide abolition of the death penalty. The majority of nations have now abolished the death penalty and the number of executions has dropped in almost all countries where abolition has not yet taken place. Emphasising the impact of international human rights principles and evidence of abuse, the authors examine how this has fuelled challenges to the death penalty and they analyse and appraise the likely obstacles, political and cultural, to further abolition. They discuss the cruel realities of the death penalty and the failure of international standards always to ensure fair trials and to avoid arbitrariness, discrimination and conviction of the innocent: all violations of the right to life. They provide further evidence of the lack of a general deterrent effect; shed new light on the influence and limits of public opinion; and argue that substituting for the death penalty life imprisonment without parole raises many similar human rights concerns."—Publisher's website

Judicial Review of National Security

David Scharia. Judicial Review of National Security (Oxford University Press, 2014).

"In Judicial Review of National Security, David Scharia explains how the Supreme Court of Israel developed unconventional judicial review tools and practices that allowed it to provide judicial guidance to the Executive in real-time. In this book, he argues that courts could play a much more dominant role in reviewing national security, and demonstrates the importance of intensive real-time inter-branch dialogue with the Executive, as a tool used by the Israeli Court to provide such review. This book aims to show that if one Supreme Court was able to provide rigorous judicial review of national security in real-time, then we should reconsider the conventional wisdom regarding the limits of judicial review of national security."

—Publisher's website

Comparative Matters: The Renaissance of Comparative Constitutional Law

Ran Hirschl (University of Toronto). Comparative Matters (Oxford University Press, 2014).

"Through an extensive exploration of comparative constitutional endeavours past and present, near and far, Hirschl shows how attitudes towards engagement with the constitutive laws of others reflect tensions between particularism and universalism as well as competing visions of who 'we' are as a political community. Drawing on insights from social theory, religion, history, political science, and public law, Hirschl argues for an interdisciplinary approach to comparative constitutionalism that is methodologically and substantively preferable to merely doctrinal accounts. The future of comparative constitutional studies, he contends, lies in relaxing the sharp divide between constitutional law and the social sciences."

—Publisher's website

The Law of Ancient Athens

David D. Philips (UCLA).  The Law of Ancient Athens (University of Michigan Press, 2013).

"Offering a comprehensive treatment of Athenian law, it assumes no prior knowledge of the subject and is organized in user-friendly fashion, progressing from the person to the family to property and obligations to the gods and to the state. . . . Topics covered in the book include homicide and wounding; theft; marriage, children, and inheritance; citizenship; contracts and commerce; impiety; treason and other offenses against the state; and sexual offenses including rape and prostitution.  The volume's unique feature is its presentation of the actual primary sources for Athenian laws. . . . The translated sources, together with topical introductions, notes, and references, will facilitate both research in the field and the teaching of increasingly popular courses on Athenian law and law in the ancient world."  
—The Law of Ancient Athens book jacket

Call number: KL 4115 .A75 P45 2013