Edward Rubin - Böcker

Given the complexity of human societies, the idea that a society's moral norms track the stages of its historical development is both controversial and difficult to demonstrate. Yet in The New Morality, Edward Rubin, an eminent scholar of the modern state, offers an ambitious account of how current moral norms are inherently connected to the type of state that currently dominates the developed world. He contends that the moral system of 'self-fulfillment'--the idea that people are entitled to the most pleasurable and meaningful life possible, without unnecessary constraints--that has emerged in the last two centuries parallels the rise of the modern administrate state. The modern state's functions--education, unemployment relief, health, and environmental protection, among others--are designed to support that moral system. However, just as the rise of the administrative state generated tensions as it replaced an older state model, self-fulfillment has created stresses because it has gradually supplanted the pre-existing moral code: the religiously based morality of higher purposes, which demanded that people serve God and king. This moral system tracked the rise of centralizing monarchies in Western Europe, and that system in turn replaced a morality of 'honor,' which dominated in the pre-absolutist era where governmental power was private in orientation and the state was weak. Rubin traces how paired state-moral system models have emerged and withered over time, paying close attention to the stresses that emerge when a new order replaces an existing one. He provides a close analysis of the components of the morality of self-fulfillment, exploring sex, pleasure, friendship, hobbies, careers, voting behavior and public obligations. Our entire system of government, he argues, is bound up in this morality, and its primary purpose is to further it. A sweeping, big-idea book in the vein of Richard Sennett's The Fall of Public Man and David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd, The New Morality promises to reshape our understanding of the ultimate aims of modern politics and society.

Research suggests that crime prevention is generally more effective than harsh punishment. But the public fears victimization and demands punishment for the perpetrators of its fears. Consequently, any policy that moves toward prevention, treatment, and alternative modes of punishment must simultaneously move toward reducing the level of victimizat

Federalism is one of the most influential concepts in modern political discourse as well as the focus of immense controversy resulting from the lack of a single coherent definition. Malcolm M. Feeley and Edward Rubin expose the ambiguities of modern federalism, offering a powerful but generous treatise on the modern salience of the term.“Malcolm Feeley and Edward Rubin have published an excellent book.”—Sanford Levinson, University of Texas at Austin“At last, an insightful examination of federalism stripped of its romance. An absolutely splendid book, rigorous but still accessible.”—Larry Yackle, Boston University“Professors Feeley and Rubin clearly define what is and is not federal system. This book should be required for serious students of comparative government and American government.”—G. Ross Stephens, University of Missouri, Kansas City “Feeley and Rubin have written a brilliant book that looks at federalism from many different perspectives—historical, political, and constitutional. Significantly expanding on their earlier pathbreaking work, they have explained the need for a theory of federalism and provided one. This is a must read book for all who are interested in the Constitution.”—Erwin Chemerinsky, Duke University School of Law

This book represents an effort by a number of leading criminologists to articulate a pragmatic crime policy for America—a policy that combines academic insights about crime prevention with the realities of contemporary politics.

This book examines the uncertainties which arise when courts have to deal with complex empirical data and contested scientific evidence in public interest cases, but lack the necessary knowledge and training to do so. Expert contributors explore the strategies, methods and techniques applied by the courts to inform their decisions, reduce uncertainty and assist proportionality assessments.Moving beyond mainstream legal thinking, which evaluates whether courts should engage with policy making, the contributors investigate the ways in which courts are actively interacting with this process. Chapters explore how courts are often hesitant to collect empirical data or scientific evidence and yet sometimes rely on this kind of evidence too easily when it is brought by self-interested litigants. The contributors present solutions to make courts less dependent on the adversarial system, revealing how courts are eager to avoid a battle of the sciences. They analyse the dependence of courts on legal principles, the procedural rules which distribute the burden of proof and ways of outsourcing complex factual issues to third party experts.Judicial Policy Making, Empirical Data and Scientific Evidence is a vital resource for scholars and students of constitutional and administrative law, research methods and law and politics. It is also beneficial for practitioners dealing with cases involving empirical data and scientific evidence.

During the coming decades, the digital revolution that has transformed so much of our world will transform legal education as well. The digital production and distribution of course materials will powerfully affect both the content and the way materials are used in the classroom and library. This collection of essays by leading legal scholars in various fields explores three aspects of this coming transformation. The first set of essays discusses the way digital materials will be created and how they will change concepts of authorship as well as methods of production and distribution. The second set explores the impact of digital materials on law school classrooms and law libraries and the third set considers the potential transformation of the curriculum that the materials are likely to produce. Taken together, these essays provide a guide to momentous changes that every legal teacher and scholar needs to understand.