Professions Books

The material came in right on time. It was in great conditions. I didn't encounter any problems. Thats exactly how a great deal/sale should be.

People find Fletcher's general views of criminal law controversial at times because ideas of criminal justice vary from region to region or person to person. However, in "Basic Concepts of Criminal Law," Professor Fletcher captures the very essence of criminal law by delineating twelve basic concepts of criminal law that serve as a common backdrop for various and diverse understandings of criminal law.

As Fletcher analyzes the "deep structure" of criminal law, he not only presents his own expert opinions but also provides readers with a framework of law through which they can contemplate the issues of criminal law. Legal scholars, academic students, and the curious public will find Fletcher's "Basic Concepts of Criminal Law" to be dynamically entertaining and stimulating.

This book is an exceptional outline of the law concerning the 4th, 5th and 6th amendments. It is well organized and completely thorough. While I would never suggest to a law student that they ignore reading all of the assigned cases in a particular class; this outline is so well done that you could rely upon it almost exclusively in your study preparation and still receive a good grade. I would also recommend this book to police officers, paralegals, or anyone else who needs to learn the intricate details of the law of search and seizure, confessions and the right to counsel. As a former student of Professor Capra, I was not suprised at the quality of this work.

You MUST buy this if your class is using the textbook this guide is keyed to. It has very helpful quick outlines at the beginning of each chapter and then makes sense of every major case, throughout perfectly following the text. It was definitely my secret weapon for being better prepared for being called on in class and preparing for the final exam.

Notes: The accompanying disk just contains the outlines already included the book in .txt format, and even though my disk was missing, I easily found the text outlines on the web. Also, this only covers the first half of the text. There is a second hornbook for the second half.

This well written book should be required reading for all those who begin a career in the field of security, and it will no doubt continue to be referred to time and again as a resource manual once training is completed.

In a clear, concise, format the authors have provided all the basic information essential to preparing individuals for a career which requires knowledge, skill and professionalism in all aspects.

Beginning immediately in chapter 1 "Case Initiation", the reader will be taken into the complex, demanding world of security investigation, and taught step-by-step the skills required. An easy to follow, easy to refer back to, outline style format will be appreciated as the book continues, covering topics such as surveillance, interviewing techniques and evidence.

Set-in boxes, charts, diagrams and sample reports, (this last undoubtedly drawn from author Celano's 20 year career with the N.Y. Police Department) are what sets this book apart from other texts on security investigations, making it a number one choice for use in the field.

Highly recommended!

This book is filled with a multitude of valuable basic security, and investigation information a must for anyone in the security industry or for someone with there own security concerns.

Professor Jordan Paust has written a very simple book in which his sole goal is to apply the law - primarily international law - to the actions of the Bush Administration in its "war on terror."

What is unusual is not only Paust's straightforward legal analysis for a lay public, but his fearlessness in the face of great wrongdoing and his willingness to articulate exactly what is wrong. Paust, of course, has the knowledge and credentials to know what he's talking about. He has been a professor of international law at the University of Houston since 1975, is a Fulbright Professor at the University of Salzburg (Austria), a Ford Foundation Fellow at Yale University, and visiting Ball Eminent Scholar University Chair at Florida State University. He is Co-Chair of the ASIL's International Criminal Law Interest Group and his publications have been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, other courts, and international tribunals. Paust also served in the military.

It may have been no great matter for Paust to write or assemble this collection of essays (all of which have been modified from articles he published in various prestigious law journals, to which he has been a frequent contributor over the past 25 years). He is trained to write this kind of stuff.

But given the high levels of wrongdoing he catalogs, his courage and steadfast adherence to unwavering moral principle must be commended and encouraged if there is to be any hope of recovery from the moral degradation brought on by this regime.

Simply stated, Paust shows that the Bush Administration repeatedly and intentionally violated intentional laws in its so-called "war on terror." Many of these violations constituted war crimes, both under international and domestic law.

The actual text of the book is only 130 pages, with another 170 pages of footnotes. The book, therefore, while dense is concise. (One need not read the footnotes, unless one wants more information.)

When I say the text is dense, I mean it is likely to require an extended effort (and possibly a second reading) by laymen to grasp the distinctions that Paust makes. It is not that Paust's language is too technical or legalistic (although he does occasionally use terms with which the general public may not be familiar). He writes well and clearly. What is difficult to follow are the unbelievably circuitous and meandering legal propositions made by the Bush Administration and the legal rectifications to those propositions. The law itself is complex but Paust does not make us labor to learn it. He condenses volumes into sentences and paragraphs.

However, despite the ease with which Paust articulates the facts and laws, there is so much to learn because so much has been left out of public understanding by the executive's misstatements and the media's failures. Of course, one could argue that members of the media need to read THIS book NOW in order to be able to properly understand and write about what is happening. It would be a rare journalist today who would know how to navigate the waters of the laws of war, which have developed gradually in a somewhat haphazard manner through centuries, and have been modified continually through treaties. This book can remedy media and public ignorance of this important field.

Paust catalogs the various executive plans and authorizations; the actors, abetments, and public paper trails; the refusals to prosecute those liable for these violations; secret detentions, renditions, and forced disappearances; the "We do not torture" ploy; illegal interrogation tactics; improper use of "enemy combatant" designations; mangling military manuals; and more.

The catalog of authorizations, alone, is devastating. Paust does not hedge when he writes: "The role that several lawyers played directly in a dreadful process of denial of protections is particularly disturbing. Not since the Nazi era have so many lawyers been so clearly involved in international crimes concerning the treatment and interrogation of persons detained during war."

He writes that whether or not any of these persons will be tried for their crimes, "the plans, authorizations, and attempted justifications have degraded or military and left a shameful stain on our country that will not be removed. The resultant crimes have served terrorist ambitions, aided their recruitment of others, and exacerbated the continual armed conflict in Iraq."

And finally:

"I know of no other instance in the long history of the United States of a plan approved by lawyers and at the highest levels of our government systematically to deny human beings protection under the laws of war. I know of no other denial by a President of the United States of the fact that the laws of war apply to an international armed conflict during which U.S. armed forces engage an enemy in battle. I know of no other authorization of a President to deny treatment required under the Geneva Conventions. I know of no other instance in our history when a Secretary of Defense, top U.S. generals, or a DOD Working Group approved such denials of protection or the use of interrogation tactics that were either patently violative of the laws of war or could clearly constitute violations in various circumstances."

This statement is found at the end of Chapter One and it is probably the strongest one in the book about the abuses of law that Paust observes. The fact that Paust only infrequently allows himself to express his outrage - and even then, in muted fashion couched in well-supported legal conclusions - makes such statements even more powerful when he does make them.

If you want to know why the term "enemy combatants" (or worse "unlawful enemy combatants") is a misnomer, legally misleading, and dangerous to OUR military personnel; if you want to know why the Geneva Conventions do apply to the present "war on terror" and why they do not need to be revised; if you want to know why President Bush's claim "We do not torture" attempts to avoid answering for violations of international law; if you want to finally really understand what is going on legally, to find the moral compass that has long existed in the laws of war, please read - and reread - this book.

Jordan Paust is Professor of International Law at the University of Houston's Law Center. He has produced a thorough and definitive account of US war crimes against its detainees.

50,000 people have been detained at Guantanamo Bay, at 25 sites in Afghanistan and 17 in Iraq. As Paust writes, "The `dirty war' would involve at least cruel and inhumane treatment of captured human beings and the forced disappearance of various detained persons, despite the fact that cruel and inhumane treatment and forced disappearance are well-known examples of conduct that is absolutely proscribed under several treaties of the United States and customary international law." The International Committee of the Red Cross described the US's interrogation process as `a form of torture'.

Presidential memos and directives illegally authorised illegal interrogation methods including at least cruel and inhumane treatment and the illegal secret detentions, renditions and disappearance of human beings. President Bush publicly admitted in September 2006 that he had approved `tough' interrogation tactics and a `program' of secret detentions and secret renditions, and that this would continue. Paust writes, "during the long history of the United States, no other President is known to have authorized violations of the laws of war concerning the transfer, treatment, and interrogation of human beings."

Government officials in most European countries, including Britain, are wrongfully complicit in violations of the rights of prisoners secretly detained in and/or transferred through their territory. They are obliged under international law not to be complicit in these violations.

Paust notes the Bush administration's "unprincipled plan to evade the reach of law and to take actions in violation of Geneva law while seeking to avoid criminal sanctions." He goes on, "The common plan and authorizations have criminal implications, as denials of protections under the laws of war are violations of the laws of war, which are war crimes." The illegal denial of combatant and POW status to members of Taliban armed forces provides a pretext for similar denials to US and other soldiers.

Bush's decision to call his post-9/11 policy a `war' on terror meets Al Qaeda's desires, because it upgrades terrorism to armed conflict and glorifies terrorists as warriors. It also makes the Pentagon a legitimate military target and gives Al Qaeda combatant immunity. The USA cannot be at `war' with bin Laden, Al Qaeda or `terrorism' because Al Qaeda is not a state or an insurgent, just a terrorist group. 9/11 was an armed attack, a crime against humanity, and the USA has only the right of selective and proportionate self-defence under the UN Charter against those directly involved.

Paust criticises `the Bush administration's unconstitutional and autocratic commander-above-the-law theory'. He writes, "The claim that the President has authority to violate international laws of war, human rights law, and domestic legislation is patently unconstitutional and unacceptable. Its nihilistic essence is remarkably close to the unlimited psychotic justifications of many terrorists ..."

Paust documents case law showing that presidents are bound by the laws of war and that presidential powers are subject to restraint by Congress, or should be. In fact, the rule of law appears to be ineffective, the separation of powers is not working, as President Bush rides over all judicial and congressional limits. He has claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office.

He sums up, "war crimes policies and authorizations are not merely a threat to constitutional government and our democracy. They threaten law and order more generally, violate our common dignity, degrade our military, place our soldiers and CIA personnel in harm's way, thwart our mission, and deflate our authority and influence abroad. They can embolden an enemy, serve as a terrorist recruitment tool, lengthen social violence, and fulfill other terrorist ambitions." These consequences `are ultimately more threatening than actual terrorist attacks'.

This rare combination of case book, moral philosophy treatise and historical survey reads equally well for learning and for reference. Starting with ancient Galen and leading to current conflicts of rights and responsibilities among state, family and those with oblique family connections, Dolgin and Shepard have produced a remarkable tour de force that will hold its place as an invaluable work for a generation at least. This work can be read straight through with endless edification for philosophers, lawyers, medical practitioners - anyone interested in the moral issues of life, death, reproduction, marriage, and medicine.

This comprehensive text provides a thoughtful overview of most of the major issues in bioethics that intersect with the American judicial system. The legal citations are scholarly and the organization allows both the student and practitioner (legal or medical) a logical approach to a myriad of thorny issues.

The writing is quite approachable but some of the legal terms might be inscrutable to a reader with no prior legal training. For many who might utilize this book, this shouldn't present any difficulty.

I am finding "Biotechnology: Law, Business, andRegulation" to be a truly useful collection of information andreferences. This single book provides a comprehensive legal and business perspective to the development of medical products derived from biotechnology.

Topics covered include: academic research, patents, raising capital, alliance agreements, technology transfer, and government regulations. The book is well organized with a user-friendly and detailed table of contents, index and glossary. It is packed with a collection of practical information which I am finding to be extremely useful in winding through the complex collection of laws, regulations, guidelines and industry practices associated with this field.

Two of the many attractive features of the book are: 1) the update subscription service provided by the publisher and 2) the CD-ROM which includes copies of the book's appendices, approximately seventy documents in pdf format which can be viewed using AcrobatTM Reader, on Mac or PC computer systems.

The CD-ROM alone, with full text copies of references such as the FDA Modernization Act, the Bayh-Dole Act, the Belmont Report and lists of venture capital firms, universities and trade associations, is worth the price of the book.

"Biotechnology: Law, Business, and Regulation" is a valuable resource that will greatly assist those involved in the commercialization of new medical products. I would recommend this book to professionals in the business of developing new drug products whether traditional pharmaceuticals or biotechnology-based products.

This is an outstanding piece of scholarship that manages to bring together in a logical way the legal, business and regulatory aspects of this rapidly-advancing field. This encyclopedic work is an invaluable resource for academics, legal practitioners, regulators and students. It is the best guide to biotechnology law available worldwide. It is a model that will be replicated from other countries and regions of the world

This outline was written by Peter Low, the most recent editor of the Criminal Law, 2nd Ed. casebook by Bonnie, Coughlin, Jeffries Jr., and Low.

It tracks the most closely with the casebook's topics and teaching approach of any of the major commercial outlines. (I personally found Emmanuel's the worst; it was followed by Gilbert's, which was passable, and finally E&E, whose broad, non-outline approach actually explained the topics relatively well.)

If you're a 1L, you've realized by now that you don't take Crim in the same way that you might have taken Physics or Linear Algebra: you take Crim -with- So-and-So. In the same way, you should be reading a commercial outline by the same author as your casebook.

If you're taking Crim and using the Bonnie text, I highly recommend Low's Black Letter Outline.

Good luck.

This textbook is a testament to the fact that Richard Bonnie is truly one of the giants in the field of criminal law. Everything this man writes is valuable; the chapters on mental health and insanity alone make purchasing this book worthwhile (Bonnie is an expert on the insanity defense). This book definitely leant itself to rich and provocative classroom discussions. I enjoyed the book almost as much as I enjoyed his class. I would recommend this text to any professor who is interested in spicing up his or her criminal law classes.

Tony Lamia is brilliant in his ability to actually understand America's constitution, what it was intended to do, and what has happened to it and therefore our freedoms. Acknowledging that American's enjoy the best system in history, Tony goes on to show how our liberties are being destroyed. The stories in the book are examples of these. Then remedies! The comprehensive nature of this book is amazing.

Tony offers realistic remedies in which individuals can directly participate. We must understand that the government is interfering with every aspect of our lives! Soon we will have absolutely no freedoms, making us prisoners in our own country! Tony provides real solutions! A must addition to anyones library!

This book totally rocks my world. Innes describes crime throughout mankind, starting with the popular poisoning method centuries ago to today's most notorious cases, including Jane and John Does, JonBenet pre-John Karr and O.J. Simpson. This book is packed with amazing stories, facts about forensices and hundreds of graphics and photographs.

GREAT gift for CSI fanatics or crime writers who don't already have this handy on their reference shelves.

Angela Wilson
Author

If you have the slightest interest in forensics, this is the book for you. If you love the CSI programs on tv, you'll love this book as it has all the details on how they solve the crimes. The author goes into amazing detail on the history and origins of all aspects of cutting edge forensics in use today. Some famous and infamous crimes are featured as well. Some of the photos are a little graphic - but if any of it helps solve another crime, it is worth it. It's a large book and not exactly bed-time reading but despite this I just couldn't put it down until I'd finished it.

I'm not a lawyer but I play one on television. If I was going to throw the book at someone, this is the book I would want to throw. I mean, it's a really BIG dictionary! Lots of words, but, unfortunately, no pictures. I especially like the definition of "wharfinger," also "Herkemer."

I am a member of the New York and Brazilian bars and have practiced law bridging the two jurisdictions for almost 30 years. In my practice, I have found Bouvier's Law Dictionary to be the only English-language law dictionary that cites and explains civil law concepts and institutions for the common-law lawyer. It is also the most useful English-language dictionary for the civil law lawyer trying to understand common law concepts, such as fiducuary duty, bailment, equity and the like.