Faculty Books & Edited Works

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  Labor Law: Cases, Materials, and Problems

  Michael C. Harper and Samuel Estreicher

  A rigorous, analytical, modern, and practical approach to the issues and challenges of labor law and labor policy. Features: a comprehensive and thoughtful view of the field of labor law, including issues of reform, economic and labor theory, and the respective roles of the NLRB, arbitrators, and federal and state courts; a highly respected author team, experienced in scholarship, practice, and teaching; a special emphasis on accessibility, manifested in clear, streamlined case editing, lucid explanatory texts, and clear and pointed narratives, notes, and questions throughout; complete, effective pedagogy, including introductory texts, excerpted NLRB and court decisions, Notes & Questions, and references to and excerpts from pertinent articles and books; a problem at the end of each chapter provides instructors with material to test student understanding, accompanied by a problems guide for professors containing suggested approaches to dealing with these problems. Powerpoint slides for each chapter designed for classroom use. New to the Seventh Edition: Includes the most significant developments since the publication of the 5th edition, including the following - an up-to-date rendering of new developments, including consideration of labor reform legislation and reform initiatives by the NLRB; note material comparing the National Labor Relations Act to the Railway Labor Act and public sector labor laws; Note materials on international labor rights and offering comparisons to the labor relations systems of selected developed countries.

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  Carbon Capture and Storage: Emerging Legal and Regulatory Issues

  Ian Havercroft, Richard Macrory, and Richard B. Stewart

  Carbon Capture and Storage is increasingly viewed as one of the most significant ways of dealing with green house gas emissions. Critical to realising its potential will be the design of effective legal regimes at national and international level that can handle effectively the challenges raised but without stifling a new technology of potential great public benefit. These include long-term liability for storage, regulation of transport, the treatment of stored carbon under emissions trading regimes, issues of property ownership, and increasingly the sensitivities of handling the public engagement and perception. With the first demonstration plants on the horizon, the last few years have already seen some remarkable legal developments, particularly in Australia, the European Union, and the United States. This important book brings together some of the world’s leading practitioners and scholars working in the field to provide a critical assessment of progress to date. Chapters cover developments in international law, as well as the European Union, North America, and Australia, with perspectives from China and India. Finance and questions of public perception and participation receive particular attention. Throughout the study, authors consider significant trends, critically evaluate progress to date, and identify key legal gaps and obstacles that still need to be addressed. Carbon Capture and Storage will be essential reading for lawyers, policy-makers, and decision-makers in industry involved in climate change policy and law.

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  Federal Habeas Corpus Practice and Procedure

  Randy A. Hertz and James S. Liebman

  Prior edition of Federal Habeas Corpus Practice and Procedure.

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  The Wars of the Romans: A Critical Edition and Translation of De armis Romanis

  Benedict Kingsbury and Benjamin Straumann

  Was the Roman Empire just? Did Rome acquire her territories through just wars, and did Rome's rule exert a civilizing effect, ultimately beneficial for its subjects? Or was Roman imperialism a massive injustice - the bellicose conquest and absorption of countless peoples and large swaths of territory under false pretences, driven by greed and a lust for domination and glory? In The Wars of the Romans (1599), the important Italian jurist and Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford University Alberico Gentili (1552-1608) argues both sides of the debate. In the first book he lays out the case against the justice of the Roman Empire, and in the second book the case for. Gentili's polemic and highly engaging work helped pioneer the use of Roman law and just war theory in what became a leading international law approach to the enduring questions of the justice of empire. Writing in the wake of the first wave of European colonial expansion in the Americas, and relying on models of the controversy about Roman imperialism from Cicero to Lactantius and Augustine, Gentili developed the arguments which were to become pivotal in normative debates concerning imperialism. In this work Gentili, a consummate Roman law scholar, frames the moral and practical issues in a combination of Roman legal terminology and the language of natural law, a combination which was to prove highly influential in the literature from Grotius onward on natural law, the law of nations and. what eventually became international law.

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  The Making of International Criminal Justice: A View from the Bench: Selected Speeches

  Theodor Meron

  There has been a quiet revolution over the course of the past quarter century in the prosecution of individuals for war crimes before international courts. Until recently, and with a few notable exceptions in the wake of World War II, violations of the laws of war and international humanitarian law were addressed primarily as claims between states. However, this approach has changed radically in just the last twenty years, as the international community has increasingly accepted the idea of individual criminal responsibility for violations of international humanitarian law. The International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda have played a key role in this transformation and, as the trailblazers for a growing number of new international or hybrid criminal courts, in establishing the field of international criminal justice and encouraging the national prosecution of war crimes. Understanding the Tribunals' origins, their ground-breaking jurisprudence, and how they have addressed critical legal and practical challenges is essential to understanding both the revolution that has occurred over the past twenty years and how international criminal law will change and grow in the years ahead. As a leading scholar on humanitarian law, past President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and Appeals Judge for both the Yugoslavia and Rwanda Tribunals, Theodor Meron has observed and influenced the development of international criminal law as it has evolved from a mostly academic exercise to a cornerstone of the new international legal order. In this collection of speeches delivered during his first decade on the bench, the book offers an insightful overview of the foundations of international criminal law as well as an unique, insider's perspective on the challenges faced by international criminal tribunals, the creation of a corpus of substantive and procedural law regarding everything from sentencing and self-representation to the law of genocide and the protection of prisoners of war, the contributions of other international courts, and the responsibilities of international jurists.

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  The Ways of a King: Legal and Political Ideas in the Bible

  Geoffrey P. Miller

  Geoffrey P. Miller argues that the narratives from Genesis to Second Kings present a sophisticated argument for political obligation and for limited monarchy as the best form of government. The Hebrew Bible, in this sense, can be considered as one of the earliest political philosopies of the western world.The Garden of Eden story identifies revelation, consent, utopia, natural law, ownership, power, patriarchy, and justice as bases for political obligation. The stories of life after the expulsion from Eden argue that government and law are essential for a decent life. The Genesis narratives recognize patriarchal authority but also identifies limits based on kinship, higher authority and power. The book of Exodus introduces the topic of political authority, arguing that nationhood strictly dominates over other forms of political organization. The Sinai narratives explore two important sources of authority: revelation and consent of the governed. The book of Joshua presents a theory of sovereignty conceived of as the exclusive and absolute control over territory. The book of Judges examines two types of national government: military rule and confederacy. It argues that military rule is inappropriate for peacetime conditions and that the confederate form is not strong enough to deliver the benefits of nationhood. The books of Samuel and Kings consider theocracy and monarchy. The bible endorses monarchy as the best available form of government provided that the king is constrained by appropriate checks and balances. Contrary to the view of some scholars, no text from Genesis to Second Kings disapproves of monarchy as a form of government. Biographische Informationen Geoffrey P. Miller, J.D. is Stuyvesant Comfort Professor of Law at the New York University Law School.

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  Trust, Risk, and Moral Hazard in Financial Markets

  Geoffrey P. Miller

  This book identifies structural features of financial markets that make them vulnerable to the sorts of instability that generated the crisis of 2008-2009. The author explains why trust is an essential feature of these markets, and investigates both why trust works so well to sustain markets in normal times and why it breaks down so quickly in times of crisis. Trust in human societies is protected by three institutions: culture, law, and self-help. While culture and law are important in financial markets, they do not reliably protect trust when the financial instruments in question are very short term in nature (such as bank deposits). Here, the parties must protect themselves by self-help—a reliable protection in ordinary times and a very unreliable one in times of crisis. The author then explores other central features of financial markets, including concepts of moral hazard—the fact that government insurance and bailouts may enhance the risk that financial institutions will take unwarranted risks—and also intellectual hazard—the tendency of complex organizations to make erroneous judgments about risk. The author provides an insightful analysis of the causes of the recent crisis and of the future prospects of the world’s financial system in light of the reforms that countries around the world have undertaken in an attempt to ensure that an event of this type does not happen again.

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  Fuel Cycle to Nowhere: U.S. Law and Policy on Nuclear Waste

  Richard B. Stewart and Jane Bloom Stewart

  For twenty-five years, the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada was designated as the sole destination for disposal of the nation's accumulated stockpiles of highly radioactive nuclear power and weapons wastes. Now the Obama administration has abandoned Yucca, and Congress must pass new laws to solve the resulting disposal crisis. Even as the federal government seeks to expand nuclear power, local communities and states are demanding a credible program for disposal of the wastes that we already have. The Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, appointed by the Obama administration to develop a plan, is currently conducting hearings. The first comprehensive history and overview of U.S. nuclear waste law and regulation, Fuel Cycle to Nowhere traces sixty years of nuclear weapons programs, the growth of nuclear power, and their waste legacies, the rise of environmentalism, and the responses of federal agencies. Richard and Jane Stewart expertly analyze the changing policies for storing low-level waste, transuranic waste, spent nuclear fuel, and high-level waste and for regulating their transport by rail and by truck. They also chronicle "a tale of two repositories"--one, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, known as WIPP, the world's only operating deep geologic nuclear waste disposal facility, which emerged from a contentious but ultimately successful struggle between federal and state interests; the other, Yucca Mountain, mandated top down by Congress and a failure. Fuel Cycle to Nowhere provides the critical information and analysis on the waste disposal issues and solutions that the commission, Congress, the administration, journalists, policymakers, and the public so urgently need. This book is a project of the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP), a Vanderbilt University-led, multi-university consortium supported as a cooperative agreement by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental This book is a project of the Consortium for Risk Evaluation with Stakeholder Participation (CRESP), a Vanderbilt University-led, multi-university consortium supported as a cooperative agreement by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management to support safe, effective, publicly credible, risk informed management of existing and future nuclear waste from government and civilian sources through independent strategic analysis, review, applied research and education.

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  International Law

  Joseph H. H. Weiler and Alan T. Nissel

  This Critical Concepts series (a Routledge Major Work) is an anthology of influential works on international law. The collection covers the principal facets of both classical and contemporary international law. In making their selection, J.H.H. Weiler and Alan T. Nissel consulted with a wide range of experts and chose those pieces that in their view both shaped the field and have illuminated its contours. These articles have, or are expected to have, considerable “staying power.” By juxtaposing classical with more contemporary articles, this anthology illustrates the motion of international law—the evolution of doctrine, practice and historiography of the field. The series begins with a consideration of the fundamental systemic (Volume I) and conceptual (Volumes II and III) features of International Law. It then maps out substantive aspects (Volumes IV and V). The collection concludes (Volume VI) with what the authors call “multi-inter-disciplinary” approaches to the field.

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  A Thousand Times More Fair: What Shakespeare's Plays Teach Us About Justice

  Kenji Yoshino

  In A Thousand Times More Fair, Kenji Yoshino, celebrated law professor and author of the acclaimed memoir Covering, offers a fresh reading of a dozen seminal Shakespeare plays to show how they provide parable of justice relevant to our lives today. Yoshino examines how models of judging presented in Measure for Measure resurfaced during the confirmation hearings for Justice Sonia Sotomayor; how the obsession with the "white handkerchief" in Othello was replicated in the "black glove" of the O.J. Simpson trial; how the vigilantism created by the weak state in Titus Andronicus has unfolded again in the war on terror in the years since the 9/11 attacks; and much more. A provocative and insightful book, A Thousand Times More Fair reveals Shakespeare's canon to be an ideal starting point to explore the nature of a just society - and our own.

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  Lawyering

  Anthony G. Amsterdam, Peggy C. Davis, and Aderson Bellegarde François

  Written for the use of students in the Lawyering Program at New York University School of Law.

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  The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen

  Kwame Anthony Appiah

  In this groundbreaking work, Kwame Anthony Appiah, hailed as "one of the most relevant philosophers today" (New York Times Book Review), changes the way we understand human behavior and the way social reform is brought about. In brilliantly arguing that new democratic movements over the last century have not been driven by legislation from above, Appiah explores the end of the duel in aristocratic England, the tumultuous struggles over footbinding in nineteenth-century China, the uprising of ordinary people against Atlantic slavery, and the horrors of "honor killing" in contemporary Pakistan. Intertwining philosophy and historical narrative, he has created "a fascinating study of moral evolution" (Philadelphia Inquirer) that demonstrates the critical role honor plays a in the struggle against man's inhumanity to man.

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  Encyclopedia of Africa

  Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr.

  The Encyclopedia of Africa presents the most up-to-date and thorough reference on this region of ever-growing importance in world history, politics, and culture. Its core is comprised of the entries focusing on African history and culture from 2005's acclaimed five-volume Africana - nearly two-thirds of these 1,300 entries have been updated, revised, and expanded to reflect the most recent scholarship. Organized in an A-Z format, the articles cover prominent individuals, events, trends, places, political movements, art forms, business and trade, religions, ethnic groups, organizations, and countries throughout Africa. There are articles on contemporary nations of sub-Saharan Africa, ethnic groups from various regions of Africa, and European colonial powers. Other examples include Congo River, Ivory trade, Mau Mau rebellion, and Pastoralism. The Encyclopedia of Africa is sure to become the essential resource in the field.

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  Local Government Law: Cases and Materials

  Lynn A. Baker and Clayton P. Gillette

  The Fourth Edition considers the unique role that local governments play in the federal system. The book asks about the distinct characteristics of local governments that distinguish them from other levels of government. The materials then explore three relationships involving local governments: the relationship between the locality and the state, the relationship between the locality and its residents, and the relationship between the locality and its neighbors. The new edition discusses recent developments in the relationship between the federal government and states and localities, including: the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in Riegel v. Medtronic (2008), Good v. Altria Group (2009), and Levine v. Wyeth (2009) concerning the federal preemption of state law; the 6th Circuit’s decision in School District of Pontiac v. Secretary of the U.S. Dep’t of Education (2009), involving the No Child Left Behind Act and unfunded federal mandates to states and school districts; and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Gonzales v. Raich (2005), affirming Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause to prohibit states from authorizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The fourth edition also includes new materials concerning the role of local governments in local economic development.

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  Trademark Law: An Open-Source Casebook

  Barton C. Beebe

  Prior edition of Trademark Law: An Open-Access Casebook - covers all aspects of American federal trademark law, including the creation, maintenance, and enforcement of trademark rights. The casebook also addresses right of publicity protection, false advertising law, and international aspects of trademark protection.

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  Common Law, Civil Law and the Future of Categories

  Oscar G. Chase and Janet Walker

  Around the world, there are signs that the traditional categories of civil and common law may be collapsing in the wake of procedural reform spurred by a new range of concerns and aspirations for procedure. In the United Kingdom, the reviews being conducted 10 years after the Woolf Reforms and in Canada, civil procedure rules in British Columbia, Ontario, and the Federal Court are all undergoing major reforms. Reforms in Europe and the United States are also challenging the traditional categories. Common Law, Civil Law and the Future of Categories presents the first comprehensive and structured study of the divide between civil and common law. The essays in this collection were originally presented at the 2009 International Association of Procedural Law conference in Toronto. Each essay tackles a topic significant for litigators and other procedural lawyers in a bijural country, underscoring the important impact this has on Canadian law.

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  Institutions and Economic Performance

  Kevin E. Davis

  The field of institutional economics has witnessed a surge in interest over recent years and has attracted the attention of a growing number of social scientists. This topical and highly informative collection brings together critical writings on the relationship between institutions and economic performance. The included works encompass seminal cross-country studies of “whether institutions matter”, as well as leading examples of within-country studies on the role of specific institutions. This indispensable volume includes an original introduction by the editor which explores the definition and measurement of institutions. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in institutions and economic development.

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  Indicators as a Technology of Global Governance

  Kevin E. Davis, Benedict Kingsbury, and Sally Engle Merry

  The use of indicators is a prominent feature of contemporary global governance. Indicators are produced by organizations ranging from public actors such as the World Bank or the US State Department, to NGOs such as Freedom House, to hybrid entities such as the Global Fund, to private sector political risk rating agencies. They are used to compare and rank states for purposes as varied as deciding how to allocate foreign aid or investment and whether states have complied with their treaty obligations. This paper defines the concept of an “indicator”, analyzes distinctive features of indicators as technologies of governance, and identifies various ways in which the use of indicators has the potential to alter the topology and dynamics of global governance. Particular attention is paid to how indicators can affect processes of standard-setting, decision-making, and contestation in global governance. The world Bank Doing Business indicators and the United Nations Human Development Index are analyzed as case studies.

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  The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Constitutional Law

  Michael C. Dorf and Trevor W. Morrison

  The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Constitutional Law presents an accessible introduction to the enduring topics of American constitutional law, including judicial review, methods of interpretation, federalism, separation of powers, equal protection, and individual liberties. One of the most important functions performed by the American Constitution and the more than two centuries' worth of cases interpreting it is the allocation of decision-making. Professor Dorf and Professor Morrison frame many of these constitutional debates with this question of authority. When should courts rule that the Constitution takes some issue outside of the domain of ordinary politics? Should courts referee disputes between the branches of the federal government? Should they referee disputes between the states and the national government? Using what standards? This introduction to American constitutional law critically examines the work of the Supreme Court of the United States, which has resolved thousands of constitutional controversies based on the shortest national constitution on the planet. The authors also look beyond the Supreme Court, exploring the arguments for and against judicial review and various versions of popular constitutionalism.

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  Working within the Boundaries of Intellectual Property: Innovation Policy for the Knowledge Society

  Rochelle C. Dreyfuss, Harry First, and Diane L. Zimmerman

  This book is the long-awaited companion volume to the highly acclaimed Expanding the Boundaries of Intellectual Property, published by Oxford University Press in 2001. That book argued for strong private rights whilst at the same time calling for caution in the expansionary trend. In the period since the first volume, intellectual property protection has grown ever stronger, and this new book focuses on finding ways to cope with the fragmentation of rights and the complex framework this expansion of rights has created. At the core of the book are considerations of such initiatives as patent clearing models, standard setting organizations, licensing arrangements and informal work-arounds. It also examines the measures that seek to protect the public domain, including strategic licensing, collective rights organizations, and non-profit ventures such as creative commons and open-source publishing. Drawing on expertise from a number of disciplines including law, economics and sociology, the book is international in approach and fuses scholarly research with legal practice. It will be of great interest to scholars in intellectual property and innovation, policy-makers, and practitioners with an interest in the future of the field. Working Within the Boundaries of Intellectual Property contains original expert writing which focuses on the fragmentation of intellectual property protection rights and the complex framework this expansion of rights has created; includes the substantive empirical research that has been conducted since the first volume, Expanding the Boundaries of Intellectual Property, on how creative enterprises deal with the new terrain of legal rights; includes analysis of new intellectual property protection regimes including patent and database protection in the US and the EU; examines the areas where modifications in existing legislation may be needed to facilitate desired outcomes or to minimize clashes between private ordering and the public interest. Expert contributor team is drawn from a variety of fields, including law, legal practice, economics, library science, and sociology.

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  A Republic of Statutes: The New American Constitution

  William N. Eskridge Jr. and John A. Ferejohn

  William Eskridge and John Ferejohn propose an original theory of constitutional law whereby, while the Constitution provides a vision, our democracy advances by means of statutes that supplement or even supplant the written Constitution.

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  Regoverning the Workplace: From Self-Regulation to Co-Regulation

  Cynthia Estlund

  This original book seeks to shape current trends toward employer self-regulation into a new paradigm of workplace governance in which workers participate. The decline of collective bargaining and the parallel rise of employment law have left workers with an abundance of legal rights but no representation at work. Without representation, even workers’ legal rights are often under-enforced. At the same time, however, many legal and social forces have pushed firms to self-regulate—to take on the task of realizing public norms through internal compliance structures. Cynthia Estlund argues that the trend toward self-regulation is here to stay, and that worker-friendly reformers should seek not to stop that trend but to steer it by securing for workers an effective voice within self-regulatory processes. If the law can be retooled to encourage forms of self-regulation in which workers participate, it can help both to promote public values and to revive workplace self-governance.

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  War and State Building in Medieval Japan

  John A. Ferejohn and Frances McCall Rosenbluth

  The nation state as we know it is a mere four or five hundred years old. Remarkably, a central government with vast territorial control emerged in Japan at around the same time as it did in Europe, through the process of mobilizing fiscal resources and manpower for bloody wars between the 16th and 17th centuries. This book, which brings Japan's case into conversation with the history of state building in Europe, points to similar factors that were present in both places: population growth eroded clientelistic relationships between farmers and estate holders, creating conditions for intense competition over territory; and in the ensuing instability and violence, farmers were driven to make Hobbesian bargains of taxes in exchange for physical security.

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  Global Issues in Antitrust and Competition Law

  Eleanor M. Fox and Daniel A. Crane

  This volume is a global reader. It presents materials and cases on the global issues of antitrust and competition policy. It may be used on its own or to supplement domestic antitrust casebooks. It might seem strange to consider the treatment of global issues as a supplement to antitrust casebooks, for, in one important sense, antitrust is global. Markets commonly cross national boundaries. Mergers are as likely as not to combine firms from different nations and in any event to affect markets in many nations. Acts and conspiracies in New York, Washington, Tokyo, Zurich, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Beijing, Delhi, or Sao Paulo may affect people around the world. Nonetheless, the great body of antitrust law is national. Two mature—although always changing—bodies of antitrust law, European and American, have become the most visible models for the world. Most antitrust casebooks are centered on national law. This volume puts the global dimension at center stage. More than 100 jurisdictions have antitrust (or competition) laws. The large majority of these laws were enacted after the Berlin Wall fell in late 1989. The antitrust nations span the world, from US, Canada and Mexico to Brazil, Argentina and Chile; the EU and the nations of Europe; to many nations in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand. Recent entrants may eventually shift the balance of influence in antitrust. Global issues are themselves diverse. They include: 1. Analysis: How to think about analysis of any conduct or transaction that has transnational dimensions. For example, how to define the market; what foreign productions to include within it; ow to analyze effects of conduct or transactions in view of foreign competition. 2. Jurisdiction: What principles define and limit jurisdiction of commissions and courts over conduct or transactions that take place abroad or that have principal effects abroad? 3. Coherence: In view of international markets, international transactions, and international effects, what have antitrust authorities done to coordinate their efforts and minimize conflicts? What institutions have been developed to consider international problems? Is there a need for greater coherence, and should it be orchestrated at a higher level; for example, through an international competition law or framework? 4. Globalization, antitrust and trade: Globalization has shrunk the world. Freer trade, combined with Internet and other communication technologies, has mad distant markets quicker and easier to access. It has increased opportunities for firms to find low-cost sources of labor and supply. It has increased opportunities for firms to find markets. It had made firms more mobile. Globalization has revealed the strong links between trade and competition. Historically, state restraints have been the domain of trade law and private or business restraints have been the domain of antitrust law. Are the lines blurring? If foreign markets are closed to imports, are they closed by state or private restraints? By private acts supported by state restraints, or vice versa? Do we need coherence between rules of trade and rules of competition? Should we have a global trade-and-competition regime? 5. Comparative antitrust: For US and EU, it is now generally accepted that antitrust/competition law should be designed and enforced to remove impediments and help make markets work, for the benefit of consumers and the efficient and potentially efficient and innovative firms that are trying to serve them. There is room also to protect suppliers from boycotts and exploitation (e.g., buying cartels); but there is no room in US or EU antitrust law to promote nationalism and to sanction protectionist industrial policies at the expense of consumers. The non-protectionist, non-discriminatory stance of US and EU competition laws helps to undergird the effective functioning of world markets and as well to link the hundred national and regional antitrust regimes. But not all antitrust jurisdictions are committed to this view of antitrust. Moreover, jurisdictions may disagree on key perspectives and modes, such as to how best to realize or preserve efficiency. In addition, differences in degrees of economic and political environment and institutions can result in different rules, standards, or emphases. This global reader will engage with these issues and give comparative examples. The plan of this book is as follows. In order to track, more or less, most antitrust casebooks, we organize our discussion under the usual topics of antitrust: cartels, monopoly and abuse of dominance, agreements other than cartels—horizontal and vertical, and mergers. We then treat the critical subject of restraints by the state—an area in which antitrust regimes are increasingly involve. Finally, we cover enforcement systems, jurisdictional issues, and the ultimate over-arching issue, global governance.

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  Peculiar Institution: America's Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition

  David W. Garland

  The U.S. death penalty is a peculiar institution, and a uniquely American one. Despite its comprehensive abolition elsewhere in the Western world, capital punishment continues in dozens of American states—a fact that is frequently discussed but rarely understood. The same puzzlement surrounds the peculiar form that American capital punishment now takes, with its uneven application, its seemingly endless delays, and the uncertainty of its ever being carried out in individual cases, none of which seem conducive to effective crime control or criminal justice. In a brilliantly provocative study, David Garland explains this tenacity and shows how death penalty practice has come to bear the distinctive hallmarks of America’s political institutions and cultural conflicts. America’s radical federalism and local democracy, as well as its legacy of violence and racism, account for our divergence from the rest of the West. Whereas the elites of other nations were able to impose nationwide abolition from above despite public objections, American elites are unable—and unwilling—to end a punishment that has the support of local majorities and a storied place in popular culture. In the course of hundreds of decisions, federal courts sought to rationalize and civilize an institution that too often resembled a lynching, producing layers of legal process but also delays and reversals. Yet the Supreme Court insists that the issue is to be decided by local political actors and public opinion. So the death penalty continues to respond to popular will, enhancing the power of politicians and criminal justice professionals, providing drama for the media, and bringing pleasure to a public audience who consumes its chilling tales. Garland brings a new clarity to our understanding of this peculiar institution—and a new challenge to supporters and opponents alike.