Faculty Books

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  After the Realist Revolution: Judicial Lawmaking in an Age of Instrumentalist Common Law Jurisprudence

  Marin Roger Scordato

  After the Realist Revolution extends the existing academic study of American common law into new and previously unexplored areas. The author examines the conventional understanding of appellate court lawmaking and the profound change in the common understanding of that activity that occurred during the mid-twentieth century. The author argues that this change in the conventional account of common law can be best understood as an authentic paradigm shift, akin to those described by Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. The book also sheds light on the ways in which the current instrumentalist approach to appellate court lawmaking is influenced and, in some respects, compromised by the structures and procedures that were created during the prior formalist era. Thorough and insightful, After the Realist Revolution is an ideal resource for legal scholars and general readers interested in the nature and evolution of American common law.

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  Domestic Relations: Cases and Materials (10th ed.)

  Raymond C. O'Brien, Walter Wadlington, and Robin Fretwell Wilson

  The Tenth Edition of this casebook continues to provide edited judicial opinions from state, federal, and international courts that illustrate the evolution—and dynamism—of domestic relations, coupled with compelling factual scenarios that illustrate common law and statutory complements. The substance of this casebook is the law among the states that affects the entire family, from assisted reproductive technology to termination of parental rights, incorporating uniform legislation and shifting judicial perspectives; this is not a niche casebook. Specifically, this Tenth Edition expands treatment of nonmarital contracting, domestic abuse, and state and federal responses to developments involving abortion, school vouchers, and gender neutrality.
  
  There are multiple Problems spread throughout the chapters, drawn from actual state and federal judicial opinions, which test student understanding and illustrate the real-life consequences of the legal issues being discussed. And the casebook has been structured to provide a logical and concise progression of material, from nonmarital cohabitation to adoption of adults. This logical sequencing permits the book to be used for two, three or four credit courses, especially since there is a statutory supplement offering a more comprehensive view of the ways that statutes affect family law throughout the states.

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  Family Law in Perspective, 6th Edition

  Raymond C. O'Brien, Walter Wadlington, and Robin Fretwell Wilson

  The Sixth Edition of the Perspectives book continues the focus of providing students, practitioners, and observers with insight into the ever-changing parameters of laws pertaining to family structure and responsibilities. Specifically, this book addresses, among other topics, nonmarital cohabitation, establishment of paternity, premarital and marital contracting, assisted reproductive technology, marriage, and divorce. Recent cases and federal and state statutes address specific topics such as surrogacy agreements, division of marital and nonmarital property upon dissolution of cohabitation or divorce, child support guidelines, and establishing custody rights through parenting agreements or what is considered in the best interest of the child. And there is a continuation of discussion illustrating equal protection, liberty interest, and free exercise in the context of same-sex relationships, the safety of partners and children, and termination of parental rights and possible adoption of minors. The Sixth Edition also explores the impact on abortion of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’ Health Organization, overturning Roe v. Wade. The Perspectives book seeks to provide the reader with a grasp of what is currently the law and a glimpse into where the law may be going.

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  The Assault on American Labor Law

  Roger C. Hartley

  The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), signed into law by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1935, guarantees the right of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and take collective action such as strikes. Since its passage, the NLRA has functioned as the foundational statute of United States labor law. Opposed by conservatives and members of the Republican Party from the beginning, its provisions were largely upheld by the Supreme Court until the 1960s. In the latter part of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, however, the Court began to erode the protections of the NLRA. While some cases have received widespread attention from commentators and scholars, such as Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney (2024), there have been numerous detrimental rulings that are little discussed. Taken as a whole, the Supreme Court’s efforts to undermine the NLRA appear sustained and systematic. By examining approximately 100 cases, Hartley demonstrates that the Court has often operated more like a legislature than a judicial body, effectively amending the NLRA’s collectivist policy underpinnings in favor of the interests of individuals and businesses. These judicial decisions create staggering obstacles for American workers to collectively organize and force them to face globalization, deindustrialization, and technological change individually, without the negotiating leverage provided by union representation. While scholars have suggested individual reforms to re-establish the efficacy of the NLRA, Hartley’s thorough study illuminates how the current crisis in US labor law evolved—a comprehensive view that is necessary to help restore the rights of workers to unionize.

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  Administrative law : cases and materials

  Jennifer Mascott, Ronald A. Cass, Colin S. Diver, and Jack M. Beermann

  Administrative Law: Cases and Materials is the product of a longstanding collaboration by a distinguished group of authors, each with extensive experience in the teaching, scholarship, and practice of administrative law. The Ninth Edition preserves the book’s distinctive features of functional organization and extensive use of case studies, with no sacrifice in doctrinal comprehensiveness or currency. By organizing over half of the book under the generic administrative functions of policymaking, adjudication, enforcement, and licensing, the book illuminates the common features of diverse administrative practices and the interconnection of otherwise disparate doctrines. Scattered throughout the book, case studies present leading judicial decisions in their political, legal, institutional, and technical context, thereby providing the reader with a much fuller sense of the reality of administrative practice and the important policy implications of seemingly technical legal doctrines. At the same time, the Ninth Edition fully captures the headline-grabbing nature of federal administrative practice in today’s politically divided world.

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  Decedents' Estates: Cases and Materials (5th ed.)

  Raymond C. O'Brien

  The fifth edition of this casebook continues the use of fact-driven judicial decisions to illustrate the expanding list of non-probate devices, execution and revocation of a valid Last Will and Testament, and statutory intestate succession. States continue to adopt self-settled asset protection trust legislation, trust protectors, dynasty trusts, and choice of situs accommodations. Socially responsible investing is offered for discussion, as are the merits of the Rule Against Perpetuities. Readiness for practice is illustrated with planning for incapacity cases and hypotheticals, including long-term housing payment options, federal and state entitlement programs, and the impact of diminished capacity and undue influence on arbitration and the validity of wealth transfer instruments. There are numerous excerpts from practitioners, providing insight into how the law works in practice, and problems are offered with corresponding pertinent feedback. Changes to the Uniform Probate Code and the Uniform Parentage Act are included, as are innovations referencing artificial intelligence, the Electronic Wills Act, the Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act, and the Cohabitants Economic Remedies Act. Federal and state statutes are introduced, specifically newly enacted ones seeking to curb rising incidents of elder financial abuse, as well as describing the interplay of taxes and wealth transfer. The fifth edition continues to include material on assisted reproduction, including surrogacy and parenthood, illustrating de facto parenthood and posthumous conception. The casebook also addresses the impact of nonmarital cohabitation on inheritance claims upon the death of a cohabiting partner; also, provisions of the Premarital and Marital Agreements Act are included, illustrated with a pertinent case. Included, too, are references to the newly promulgated Directed Trust Act, the Trust Decanting Act, the Uniform Fiduciary Income and Principal Act, the Powers of Appointment Act, and the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act.

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  Fulfilling the pledge : securing industrial democracy for American workers in a digital economy

  Roger C. Hartley

  Millions of non-union workers want unionization, but our current labor-management relations law conspires to deny them meaningful opportunities to secure collective workplace representation. The resulting low rates of collective bargaining impose economic, political, and social costs on us all. In Fulfilling the Pledge, Roger Hartley addresses the plight of American workers, who face a grim, uncertain future, as the digital workplace reshapes the hierarchical post–World War II industrial relations system that once gave workers a voice. Through empirical evidence and the lens of law and policy, Hartley examines what industrial sociologists call the chronic “representation gap” and clarifies how a wide-ranging movement could build a vocal constituency for the congressional enactment of labor law reform.

  The pledge made in the 1935 National Labor Relations Act to encourage establishment of industrial democracy—where workers possess a voice in their places of work—remains unfulfilled. Speaking to policymakers, scholars, historians, and the average citizen, Fulfilling the Pledge makes a compelling case for collective workplace representation that serves the greater good, even as American labor relations law continues to undermine collective bargaining by workers and becomes an increasingly significant political and social issue.

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  A Student's Guide to Relevance, Character, Habit, and Impeachment

  Clifford S. Fishman

  Relevance is the basic concept of evidence law. Professor Fishman, who taught evidence for 41 years at Catholic University of America Law School, covers the entire subject—including conditional relevance, inferences, direct and circumstantial evidence, and order of proof—in all its applications, particularly character, "other acts" evidence, and habit. The book then covers every aspect of impeaching and rehabilitating a witness's testimony: perception; memory; narration; prior consistent or inconsistent statements; and potential bias or motive to lie. In other words, this book covers Rules 104–106, 401–415, 607–613, and 801(d)(1) of the Federal Rules of Evidence.

  When an offer of evidence implicates several of these rules, Professor Fishman explains how to identify the rules (and sub-rules and "unwritten rules") that need to be considered and those which need not be; the procedural and tactical trial context in which these issues arise; and how to figure out what your professor is looking for in class and on exams.

  Each chapter contains numerous essay and multiple-choice questions and answers applying the rules. In addition, he reveals the evidentiary "relevance" of (a) animals large and small; (b) cultural icons, including Shakespeare, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Blake Shelton, and Linus van Pelt; and (c) major historical figures, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Confucius, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Howie Kendrick.

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  Ethical Problems in the Practice of Law (6th ed.)

  Lisa G. Lerman, Philip Schrag, and Robert Rubinson

  This problem-based book reflects the authors’ broad range of teaching, clinical, and policy-making experience. The book’s carefully crafted ethical problems challenge students to engage in a deep analysis and participate in lively class discussion. Features include: Real-world problems, most based on actual cases, in which students are asked to step into the shoes of practicing lawyers to confront difficult ethical dilemmas that often arise in practice.

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  The Fundamentals of Elder Law: Cases and Materials (2d ed.)

  Raymond C. O'Brien

  The second edition of this casebook continues to provide the fundamentals for a lively, contemporary course in elder law. It emphasizes illustrative factual cases and statutes, and is supported by materials from elder law practitioners and statistical data. It is distinctive in its emphasis upon state and federal court decisions, not simply a recitation of statutory provisions. Elder law is of burgeoning historical and social importance. Statistics indicate that by 2030, one-fifth of all Americans will be 65 or older, and each day 10,000 persons turn 65. Among the legal issues pertinent to an aging population are estate planning objectives in the context of possible incapacity, integrating nonprobate and probate transfers, asset protection planning, philanthropy and dynasty options, and beneficial tax planning. Statutory changes establish guidance for personal health care decision-making and designations of guardians and surrogates to exercise authority when needed. Clients and institutions require legal assistance to navigate federal benefits such as Medicare, Social Security, Veterans Benefits, and the interaction of state-federal Medicaid opportunities. Statistics also indicate that almost two-thirds of all individuals over age 65 will need some form of long-term care. The cost of this care can be as little as $1,000 a month for simple help around the house, but at least $15,000 to $20,000 a month is needed for continual care by health care professionals. This edition continues the discussion on ageism, the pandemic of elder abuse in all its forms, and discrimination in housing and employment.