A selection of law ebook titles were purchased in January and February, in association with the ebooks@cambridge team. These are all available through iDiscover, and include:
A Theory of Legal Punishment: Deterrence, Retribution, and the Aims of the State, by Matthew Altman (Routledge, 2021)
This book argues for a mixed theory of legal punishment that treats both crime reduction and retribution as important aims of the state.A central question in the philosophy of law is why the state’s punishment of its own citizens is justified. Traditionally, two theories of punishment have dominated the field: consequentialism and retributivism. According to consequentialism, punishment is justified when it maximizes positive outcomes. According to retributivism, criminals should be punished because they deserve it. This book supports the two-tiered model by showing that it accords with our moral intuitions, commonly held (compatibilist) theories of freedom, and assumptions about how the extent of our knowledge affects our obligations. It engages classic and contemporary work in the philosophy of law and explains the theory’s advantages over competing approaches from retributivists and other mixed theorists. The book also defends consequentialism against a longstanding objection that the social sciences give us little guidance regarding which policies to adopt. Drawing on recent criminological research, the two-tiered model can help us to address some of our most pressing social issues, including the death penalty, drug policy, and mass incarceration. This book will be of interest to philosophers, legal scholars, policymakers, and social scientists, especially criminologists, economists, and political scientists.
Carter's Breach of Contract (2nd edition), by J.W. Carter (Hart Publishing, 2019)
Carter's Breach of Contract is well established as the leading text on the subject in the Commonwealth, having been cited regularly and with approval by the courts in a number of jurisdictions. The work is comprehensive in relation to both English and Australian law. Moreover, by drawing on decisions in the United States, Singapore and New Zealand, the American Law Institute's Restatement of Contract, 2nd as well as the Uniform Commercial Code (US) and the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, the work has a unique comparative dimension. It will therefore be a valuable resource for scholars, practising lawyers and students of contract law.
Court of Injustice: Law Without Recognition in U.S. Immigration, by J.C. Salyer (Stanford University Press, 2020)
Court of Injustice reveals how immigration lawyers work to achieve just results for their clients in a system that has long denigrated the rights of those they serve. J.C. Salyer specifically investigates immigration enforcement in New York City, following individual migrants, their lawyers, and the NGOs that serve them into the immigration courtrooms that decide their cases.
Radical Constitutional Pluralism in Europe, by Orlando Scarcello (Routledge, 2022)
This book explains the challenge of constitutional pluralism and its importance, showing its theoretical and practical relevance, and giving a sense of why the existing scholarship on the matter is unsatisfactory. The work explores how legal practitioners and theorists have faced the challenge of a society living under two constitutions at the same time. This comes as the European Union, which legally and politically integrates Europe and seems to challenge the view that no State can simultaneously abide by both the venerable national constitutions and the ever-developing EU constitutional law, is increasingly torn between calls for closer integration to face collective challenges and mounting Euroscepticism and nationalism.
Sovereignty and Liberty: A Study of the Foundations of Power, by Amnon Lev (Routledge, 2014)
The attitude we take to power is almost invariably one of distrust, never more so than when it claims to be sovereign. And yet, we have always been drawn to sovereignty. Out of fear or fascination, we accepted that it was a condition of our liberty; that to assert ourselves as free, we would have to work not against but through sovereign power. This book retraces the history of the implication of sovereignty and liberty, an implication that has shaped the way we live together, as individuals and as political beings. Shedding new light on the work of key political and constitutional thinkers, including Marsilius of Padua, Hobbes, Hegel, Kelsen, and Schmitt, it identifies the conceptual operations that created sovereignty and shows how subjection to an absolute and undivided power came to be a source of meaning.
The Law of Disclosure: A Perennial Problem in Criminal Justice, edited by Ed Johnston and Tom Smith (Routledge, 2021)
This edited collection explores the topic of disclosure of evidence and information in the criminal justice process. The book critically analyses the major issues driving the long-standing problem of dysfunctional disclosure practice, with contributions from academics, lawyers, former police officers, and current police policymakers. The ultimate objective is to review the key problems at the investigative, trial and post-conviction stages of criminal proceedings, and to suggest a way forward through potential routes of reform, both legal and cultural. The collection represents a significant and novel contribution to the policy debate regarding disclosure, and advances thought on resolving this issue in a fair and sustainable manner.
The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy and Science of Punishment, edited by Farah Focquaert, Elizabeth Shaw and Bruce N. Waller (Routledge, 2021)
Philosophers, legal scholars, criminologists, psychiatrists, and psychologists have long asked important questions about punishment: What is its purpose? What theories help us better understand its nature? Is punishment just? Are there effective alternatives to punishment? How can empirical data from the sciences help us better understand punishment? What are the relationships between punishment and our biology, psychology, and social environment? How is punishment understood and administered differently in different societies? The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy and Science of Punishment is the first major reference work to address these and other important questions in detail, offering 31 chapters from an international and interdisciplinary team of experts in a single, comprehensive volume. It covers the major theoretical approaches to punishment and its alternatives; emerging research from biology, psychology, and social neuroscience; and important special issues like the side-effects of punishment and solitary confinement, racism and stigmatization, the risk and protective factors for antisocial behavior, and victims' rights and needs.
Vicarious Liability in the Common Law World, edited by Paula Giliker (Hart Publishing, 2022)
This book is the one place to find unprecedented access to case-law, doctrinal debates and comparative reflections on vicarious liability from across the common law world. The doctrine of vicarious liability, that is strict liability for the torts of others, represents one of the most controversial areas of tort law. Unsurprisingly it is a doctrine that has been discussed in the highest courts of common law jurisdictions. This collection responds to uncertainties as to the operation of vicarious liability in twenty-first century tort law by looking at key common law jurisdictions and asking expert scholars to set out and critically analyse the law, identifying factors influencing change and the extent to which case-law from other common law jurisdictions has been influential. The jurisdictions covered include Canada, England and Wales, Australia, Singapore, Ireland, Hong Kong and New Zealand.
All of these ebooks are available to current University of Cambridge staff and students with a Raven password. A full list of ebook platforms can be viewed via the ebooks@cambridge LibGuide.