Free Delivery Over $100
|
|
|||
|
||||
Awards
OverviewAmerican law schools extol democracy but teach little about its most basic institution, the Congress. Interpreting statutes is lawyers' most basic task, but law professors rarely focus on how statutes are made. This misguided pedagogy, says Victoria Nourse, undercuts the core of legal practice. It may even threaten the continued functioning of American democracy, as contempt for the legislature becomes entrenched in legal education and judicial opinions. Misreading Law, Misreading Democracy turns a spotlight on lawyers' and judges' pervasive ignorance about how Congress makes law. Victoria Nourse not only offers a critique but proposes reforming the way lawyers learn how to interpret statutes by teaching legislative process. Statutes are legislative decisions, just as judicial opinions are decisions. Her approach, legislative decision theory, reverse-engineers the legislative process to simplify the task of finding Congress's meanings when statutes are ambiguous. This theory revolutionizes how we understand legislative history-not as an attempt to produce some vague notion of legislative intent but as a surgical strike for the best evidence of democratic context. Countering the academic view that the legislative process is irrational and unseemly, Nourse makes a forceful argument that lawyers must be educated about the basic procedures that define how Congress operates today. Lawmaking is a sequential process with political winners and losers. If lawyers and judges do not understand this, they may well embrace the meanings of those who opposed legislation rather than those who supported it, making legislative losers into judicial winners, and standing democracy on its head. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Victoria NoursePublisher: Harvard University Press Imprint: Harvard University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 23.50cm Weight: 0.544kg ISBN: 9780674971417ISBN 10: 0674971418 Pages: 272 Publication Date: 26 September 2016 Audience: Professional and scholarly , Professional and scholarly , Professional & Vocational , Professional & Vocational Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Out of stock  The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available. Table of ContentsReviewsNourse convinces that America's judges, law professors, and lawyers know perilously little about the most important branch of government--the United States Congress--and spells out the consequences this gap in our collective knowledge have for governance. Helping to fill that gap, this accessible book takes on those who practice 'petty textualism' while offering an approach to statutory interpretation that is both more professionally satisfying and consistent with our representative democracy. Brava!--William N. Eskridge, Jr., Yale Law School Nourse convinces that America s judges, law professors, and lawyers know perilously little about the most important branch of government the United States Congress and spells out the consequences this gap in our collective knowledge have for governance. Helping to fill that gap, this accessible book takes on those who practice petty textualism while offering an approach to statutory interpretation that is both more professionally satisfying and consistent with our representative democracy. Brava!--William N. Eskridge, Jr., Yale Law School Author InformationVictoria Nourse is Professor of Law and Director of the Center on Congressional Studies at Georgetown Law School. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
||||
