Book Review: How Mediation Works: Theory,Research, and Practice by Stephen B. Goldberg,Jeanne M. Brett,Beatrice Blohorn‐Brenneur,With Nancy H. Rogers

This is a book review of How Mediation Works: Theory, Research, and Practice by Stephen B. Goldberg, Jeanne M. Brett, Beatrice Blohorn‐Brenneur, with Nancy H. Rogers. How Mediation Works is intended for a wide range of audiences: practicing mediators; aspiring mediators; those who may refer cases to mediation; participants in mediation, including parties and attorneys; managers who facilitate disputes; and those interested in mediation without a specific plan to engage in the practice (who the authors call “mediation learners”). The book is a well‐written, thoughtful, easy‐to‐read, organized, and concise overview of mediation practice. The book is divided into six chapters: (1) conflicts, disputes, and their resolution; (2) dispute resolution processes; (3) the roles of the mediator and the disputing parties at each step of the mediation process; (4) dealing with difficulties; (5) mediation and the law; and (6) suggestions for aspiring mediators. Though not an authority for family law mediation, the book provides many insightful observations and suggestions that would be instructive and helpful to any mediator or individual with an interest in mediation.     

Two generations of Sutherland’s white-collar war crime data and beyond

Edwin Sutherland published his famous White Collar Crime in 1949 where he excoriated leaders of American firms for their war crimes. The names of all corporations were deleted, however, from the book by the threat of legal action. The unabridged version was published in 1983 when the Sutherland files at Indiana University were unsealed. These files can now be compared with both the 1949 and 1983 book, as well as with other evidence of corporate war crimes during World War II.     

Excellence in Psychological Injury and Law: Book Review of Motor Vehicle Collisions by Duckworth, Iezzi, and O’Donohue (2008)

In several ways, the book on motor vehicle collisions by Duckworth, Iezzi, and O’Donohue (2008) breaks new ground and should be considered a must-read for workers in the area of psychological injury and law. The editors have assembled a team of expert authors who have cogently analyzed the scientific evidence in the area of motor vehicle collisions and their aftermath, while calling for more research. The book is replete with information that will help practitioners understand and deal with cases involving conditions such as chronic pain, posttraumatic stress, and traumatic brain injury. Practitioners will learn about complications in such cases, including threats to validity and legal aspects. The inclusion of chapters from a medical perspective is a welcome innovation. The book is only lacking in that, although assessment is considered throughout, chapters specifically addressing this topic are not included. The book review concludes that the Motor vehicle collisions book by Duckworth et al. should be included as part of the growing list of excellent resources in the area of psychological injury and law.     

Freakonomics: Scholarship in the Service of Storytelling

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side ofEverything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner is certainlypopular. Indeed, my search for something comparable took meback more than 120 years.¹ Even with the uncertainty about whatconstitutes a best seller, it is clear that the book has reacheda huge audience, especially for a book about "economics." AsI write this, it has been on the New York Times best-sellerlist for 46 weeks, and having started on the Publisher’sWeekly Hardcover Nonfiction best-seller list in the 12th positionon April 25, 2005, it has hovered in the top ten thereafter.Moreover, as reported on the Freakonomics web site, the bookhas garnered a large international audience, and the book ison various "best of" lists. Levitt and Dubner have sought abroad and diverse audience for their collection of stories:Levitt has been on "The 700 Club" (a talk show by conservativebusinessman and religious broadcaster Pat Robertson) and "TheDaily Show with Jon Stewart" (a center–left parody ofthe news and news reporting) among other places. Both the authorswrite a column for the New York Times Magazine as well as participatein an active blog (just navigate from the book’s web siteto the URL http://www.freakonomics.com, where, among other things,they respond to a large number of readers’ inquiries²).The book comes complete with more than 20(!) pages of referencesand citations as diverse as a radio talk show caller’sunverified claim that her niece was named "Shithead" (pronouncedSHUH-teed) as well as Kenneth Arrow’s "A Theory of Discrimination"and includes a two-and-a-half page tabulation of average yearsof mother’s education by child’s first name. Theextensive footnotes should not mislead: Freakonomics does nottake its subjects very seriously. In Freakonomics, Levitt’sscholarship and the scholarship of others are put in the serviceof telling a "good story" rather than the other way around.Indeed, if the many reviews of the book are any guide, manyfind the book "entertaining" even if they felt that "Levitt’sonly real message is to encourage confrontational questions"(Berg, 2005). One reviewer found the stories so compelling thathe went so far as to suggest that "criticizing Freakonomicswould be like criticizing a hot fudge sundae" (Landsburg, 2005).     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Designing the New American University</Emphasis> by Michael Crow and William Dabars: a primer for technology transfer academics,agencies, and administrators

You should read this book if you identify with one or more of the following groups. The first group is the academic readership of The Journal of Technology Transfer, mostly organizational economists and policy analysts, who should read the book because it presents some compelling ideas for research and theory. The second audience is the journal’s policy making readership concerned with return-on-investment from universities, who should view the institutional design process touted by the authors with skepticism. The third audience is comprised of university administrators, who might be inspired by the book to reevaluate what they’re doing structurally at their own institutions.     

Response: The Politeness of History

In my response to the reviews of my book by Marianne Constable, Shai Lavi, and Renisa Mawani, I situate the argument of Common Law, History, and Democracy in America, 1790–1900: Legal Thought Before Modernism within a concern with contemporary forms of historical knowledge. Where contemporary historical knowledge practices subsume their objects of investigation, I adopt the temporality of the object of investigation—namely, the common law—as the structure my book. In different registers, Constable, Lavi, and Mawani urge me to take up more explicitly the foundational questioning about which they care. I welcome their readings. However, given the distinct problematic from which I start, I argue, the book is not in the first instance an argument about the ontology of history or law.     

The People in Question: Citizens and Constitutions in Uncertain Times by JOSHAW (Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2020, 336 pp., £75.00)

In court judgements on nationality, it is common to find references to the constitutions and citizenship provisions of various countries. In addition, the influences of regional as well as global human rights legal instruments are often cited by lawyers in arguments and judges in their decisions. It is surprising, then, that academic scholarship on the topic is usually single-country or single-region specific in nature. In her new book The People in Question: Citizens and Constitutions in Uncertain Times, Jo Shaw decisively goes against this trend through critical engagement with a plethora of jurisdictions at various levels of national and international adjudication.     

Framing Henry Ford's War: Representation,Speech, and the New Civil Rights History

Woeste, Victoria Saker. 2012 . Henry Ford's War on Jews and the Legal Battle Against Hate Speech . Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. In this essay, I respond to three readers of my book, Henry Ford's War and the Legal Battle Against Hate Speech, by embracing the opportunity to reconsider the book's theoretical and historiographical frames. I synthesize the contributions that Clyde Spillenger, Carroll Seron, and Aviam Soifer make in their deep readings of the book and respond to their criticisms. I then place the book into a new interpretive frame that is emerging in the field of the “new civil rights history,” as it is now being conceptualized in the work of Risa Goluboff, Kenneth Mack, Tomiko Brown‐Nagin, and others writing on civil rights advocacy in the twentieth‐century United States.     

Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and Postconcussion Syndrome: The New Evidence Base for Diagnosis and Treatment

McCrea’s book makes an important contribution to our understanding of mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) and post-concussive syndrome (PCS). It offers an excellent review of studies over the past 5–10 years, particularly those in the area of sports medicine/concussion. The author has established a consensus definition of MTBI and best practice in the management and treatment of these patients, while forcing us to rethink the ‘true incidence’ of persistent PCS. There are a host of other conclusions, ideas for future research, and inaccuracies previously published in the literature that are clarified that will be helpful for clinicians working with this challenging patient population. The book is considered a scholarly contribution that most neuroscientists and clinicians who work with MTBI patients will find helpful. One limitation of the book as well as one lingering question that remains unanswered are discussed at the end of the review.     

B. F. Skinner's utopian vision: behind and beyond walden two

This paper addresses B. F. Skinner's utopian vision for enhancing social justice and human well‐being as it was introduced in his 1948 novel, Walden Two. In the first part, we address the historical, intellectual, and social context that situates the book in the utopian genre, the critiques of its premises and practices, and the fate of intentional communities patterned on the book. In the second part, we review practices in Skinner's book that advance social justice and human well‐being under the themes of health, wealth, and wisdom, and then focus on contemporary practices that are the legacy of his vision. His vision was neither the a priori truth of a particular premise about human behavior or a necessary practice (blueprint) for an intentional community but rather the use of empirical methods to discover premises and practices that work to advance the health, wealth, and wisdom of individuals and survival of the culture.     

On building a sovereign state from scratch: The law and economics of Theodor Herzl's programmatic work

Rarely has one book had the impact of Herzl's Der Judenstaat. To which other book can we points as having led to the creation of an entire state? In looking at the slim volume today, we are struck by its freshness of insight and its strict adherence to trying to find institutional solutions that would allow people to establish the new state and then conduct their lives according to what Herzl conceived as modern Jewish principles. This study is exemplary not only for its success. In a time of great economic and legal change, scholars particularly in the transitional economies are looking for analyses that help them create the functioning institutions that need to be built, often quite literally, from scratch. Herzl, who wrote his book not as a contribution to law and economics but as a contribution to furthering his cause, nevertheless left a remarkable exercise in applied law and economics.     

Justice and Public Opinion from a Comparative Perspective

Toril Aalberg’s book links a wide array of issues and perspectives that conventionally are kept apart. She combines normative theory with empirical justice research, takes a longitudinal as well as a cross-national perspective, and she discusses her results against the background of the socio-structural and institutional context. The book provides a detailed picture of the attitudinal landscape and is a rich source of comparative data on social justice attitudes. The exceptionally wide variety of approaches that are used represents an asset of this analysis and addresses the need for an encompassing view on the issue of justice. At the same time, when recapitulating the results, it becomes evident that this strategy also entails dangers: Aalberg’s approach requires a more comprehensive conceptual framework that allows a coherent interpretation of her findings. It is argued that normative institutionalism would offer a suitable frame of interpretation for the subject and design employed.     

Failed Governance: A Comment on Baker and Griffith's Ensuring Corporate Misconduct

This essay evaluates Baker and Griffith's book, Ensuring Corporate Misconduct, as a contribution to the social science literatures on regulation and governance, risk, and insurance. Previous social science work on insurance often took an “insurance on the ground” perspective comparing how insurance actually works with the theory of insurance and scrutinizing the actions of insurers as well as the actions of their policyholders. In line with this perspective, Baker and Griffith find that directors and officers (D&O) insurers do not actually charge premiums that vary with risk or monitor the actions of the officers and directors covered by the insurance. Because insurers and governments share governance tasks (a point Baker makes elsewhere), insurers' failures in fact amount to “failed governance” of the corporate world.     

Review Symposium: Interdisciplinary Readings of Ari Bryen's Violence in Roman Egypt—Author's Reflections

Bryen, Ari Z. 2013 . Violence in Roman Egypt: A Study in Legal Interpretation . Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Pp. 376. $75.00 cloth; $75.00 eBook. In this brief comment, I respond to symposium reviewers of my book Violence in Roman Egypt (2013). I consider the insights each provides from their respective discipline, and identify connections across those disciplines as well. More broadly, I comment on the theoretical purchase and unique challenges of law and society scholarship.     

论晚明插图本的文本价值及其传播机制

晚明的插图本,不管梓行数量还是质量都远超前代,具有极高的文本价值和审美价值.加上晚明书商具有一套较为灵活的传播机制,采取诸如聘请名家加盟、更新版式、加大广告宣传力度等措施,极大地推动了插图本的传播速度.书商的这些举措也成为中国传播史上成功的传播范例.     

Dan ?t’astny: The Economics of Economics

The Economics of Economics (2010) by Dan ?t??astny extends the economic approach of public choice and law and economics to see how economists behave so as to improve their well being in the world of uncertainty, scarcity and institutions. According to ?t??astny, economists have been adjusting their behavior to the changing institutional environment and, consequently, ended up policy irrelevant. The book review provides an assessment of the model ?t??astny employs. On the one hand, ?t??astny offers a looking glass that helps seeing the decision making process of an economist from a price theory perspective. I suggest, on the other hand, that the model would be more accurate had it not considered preferences constant. In fact, the evolution of economists?? preferences and the changing sense of praiseworthiness is what the model should try to explain.     

Advances in Critical Cultural Criminology: An Analysis of Reactions to Avant-Garde Flag Art

As a popular motif in American art, images ofthe United States flag remind citizens of the importanceof culture in promoting patriotism. Still, theprevailing aesthetic commands a dignifiedrepresentation of the Stars and Stripes,shunning political criticism and disrespect forthe nation's most cherished emblem. Amid thecontroversy over flag burning in 1989, artistDread Scott unveiled his work What is theProper Way to Display the U.S. Flag? at theSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago. In thatpiece, the U.S. flag was placed on the floor ofthe gallery, inciting enormous public outrage.As a form of interactive art, Scott invitedvisitors to record their thoughts about theflag in a ledger book furnished at the exhibit.More than 1,600 messages were transcribed inthe ledger book, thus becoming an intriguingsource of unobtrusive data. This researchexplores societal reaction to Scott's artworkthrough a content analysis of the entriescontained in the ledger book. Whileinterpreting prominent themes framing theconflict over flag desecration, this workcontributes to a critical cultural criminology.In particular, the analysis brings to theforefront the significance of power,hierarchies, and social inequality drivingcriminalization campaigns aimed at controllingavant-garde flag art and political dissent.     

Islamic Law in Action: A Historical Discussion

This review essay engages Kristen Stilt's recent book, Islamic Law in Action: Authority, Discretion, and Everyday Experiences in Mamluk Egypt (2011), in a fashion that highlights its contributions to the study of Islamic law. In particular, it underlines the methodological arguments made in the book that might help us think about Islamic legal practice in sophisticated and historically grounded ways. As elaborated in the article, these arguments have important implications for modern as well historical settings. Specifically, Stilt's discussion of “Islamic law in action” reveals the inherent flexibility of Islamic legal practice to accommodate political change. The article also discusses how further research on the topic could benefit from specific approaches and orientations.     

The Process Is the Punishment: Thirty Years Later

This essay reviews the arguments and impacts of the classic work, The Process Is the Punishment by Malcolm Feeley, originally published in 1979 and republished with a new foreword and preface in 1992. This essay examines how the book has been used in sociolegal research since 1979 by empirically tracing its citation in published work. I also examine missed opportunities where The Process Is the Punishment could still expand its impact in the literature, as well as reviewing the major arguments and criticisms of the book.     

A. P. Simester (ed): Appraising Strict Liability

The article is a review of A.P. Simester, ed., Appraising Strict Liability. We strongly recommend the book for the sophistication of the contributors’ analyses, and the contribution the book makes to clarifying the normative issues at stake in strict liability legal regimes. The review focuses on the more philosophical essays in the book. The specific issues from the book identified in the review are: the rights-based character of the prohibition on conviction without moral fault; the importance of the principle of proportionality; due diligence defences; the instrumental worth of strict liability in relation to quasi-criminal regulation; the faultiness of genuinely creating risks.