Bush v. Gore: Understanding the American Legal System
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
This book offers an opportunity to learn the foundations of the American Legal System through the most famous contemporary cases. It is ideal for learning the interaction and jurisdiction of the various levels of courts and their relationship to the legislature.
A sampling of chapters include: Don't blame the courts, not yet anyway; Forget what you thought you knew about the law; Arguing with and about words; Overview of the law; Separation of powers; the foundation of govement; The history of the electoral college: should it be abolished? Reading a trial court opinion; The powers of precedent; and Legislative interpretations.
From the Inside Flap
The motivation for this book emanated from teaching for many years an introductory course in law to undergraduates. A primary obstacle in teaching law at that level is finding cases that students find interesting to read. Nearly all our students followed with various degrees of interest the vagaries of the presidential election of 2000 and the lawsuits that ensued. Like most observers, they viewed the lawsuits from a partisan viewpoint. Since we are all from Florida, our emotional attachment to the issues was at least as great as elsewhere in the nation. We understood some of the local politics and demographics, but we were no more sophisticated about election law-even in our state-than anyone else.
Law is complex, often mysterious. The legal turmoil surrounding the election provided a foundation for examining the American legal system. Each day in class during November and December of 2000, we speculated on the events and the future. Our predictions were no better than those of the television commentators. It seems there were very few lawyers and judges who had any depth of knowledge of election law.
Bush v. Gore presents every significant feature of the American legal system that forms a theme of an introduction to law. This book is not designed to critique either the political controversy or the legal merits of either side, although some of both must necessarily show through. We have attempted the daunting task of bringing objectivity to the controversy. We suspect that some readers will find the book slanted toward Bush, while others will conclude it is slanted toward Gore. Hopefully, readers can suspend such judgments and learn about the American legal system and what happened in the year 2000.
We recommend that the reader peruse the Appendices before proceeding very far into the book-these should prove useful points in understanding the cases and statutes, as well as serve as reminders of events that may already be hazy in the memory.
Special thanks go to Diane Montague, who pitched in for many hours during the late stages to make certain that we met our deadlines.
March 2001
Orlando, Florida
Ransford C. Pyle
Heather Slusher
Carol M. Bast
Bush v. Gore: Understanding the American Legal System
Bush v. Gore: Understanding the American Legal System,Ransford C. Pyle,Heather Slusher,Carol M. Bast,Prentice Hall,0929563662,General,Law,Legal Reference / Law Profession,Law / General
English Books:
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