This book offers an exceptionally straightforward explanation of the intertwining relationship between law and society--with emphasis on the relationship of social conditions, social ideas, and people to the creation, interpretation, and use of law. These three concepts are further used to illustrate how law is formulated in a cross-cultural context, as well as within the confines of gender, race and social class. The social context of law. The theoretical context of law. Cross-cultural context of law. Types of law. Systems of law. Practitioners of law. The purpose and usefulness of law. Gender, race, social class, and law. For anyone who desires an understanding of the significant bearing law has on contemporary life, and for those considering the legal professions, e.g., pre-law, paralegal, corrections, etc.

American Criminal Courts: Legal Process and Social Context provides a complete picture of both the theory and day-to-day reality of criminal courts in the United States. The book begins by exploring how democratic processes affect criminal law, the documents that define law, the organizational structure of courts at the federal and state levels, the overlapping authority of the appeals process, and the effect of legal processes such as precedent, jurisdiction, and the underlying philosophies of various types of courts. In practice, criminal courts are staffed by people who represent different perspectives, occupational pressures, and organizational goals. Thus, this book includes chapters on actors in the traditional courtroom workgroup (judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys, etc.) as well as those outside the court who seek to influence it, including advocacy groups, the media, and politicians. It is the interplay between the court's legal processes and the social actors in the courtroom that makes the application of criminal law fascinating. By focusing on the tension between the law and the actors inside of it, American Criminal Courts: Legal Process and Social Context demonstrates how the courts are a product of "law in action" and presents content in a way that enables you to understand not only the "how" of the U.S. criminal court system, but also the "why." Clearly explains both the principles underlying the development of criminal law and the practical reality of the court system in action A complete picture of the criminal justice continuum, including prosecution, defense, judges, juries, sentencing, and pre-trial and appeals processes Feature boxes look at how courts are portrayed in the media; identify landmark due-process cases; illustrate the pros and cons of the courts’ discretionary decision-making; examine procedures and the goals of justice; and highlight the various types of careers available within the criminal courts

Jonathan Herring provides a clear and engaging overview of legal ethics, highlighting the ethical issues surrounding professional conduct and raising interesting questions about how lawyers act and what their role entails. Key topics, such as confidentiality and fees, are covered with references throughout to the professional codes of conduct.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book sheds new light on a selection of big data scenarios from an interdisciplinary perspective. It features legal, sociological and economic approaches to fundamental big data topics such as privacy, data quality and the ECJ’s Safe Harbor decision on the one hand, and practical applications such as smart cars, wearables and web tracking on the other. Addressing the interests of researchers and practitioners alike, it provides a comprehensive overview of and introduction to the emerging challenges regarding big data.All contributions are based on papers submitted in connection with ABIDA (Assessing Big Data), an interdisciplinary research project exploring the societal aspects of big data and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.This volume was produced as a part of the ABIDA project (Assessing Big Data, 01IS15016A-F). ABIDA is a four-year collaborative project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. However the views and opinions expressed in this book reflect only the authors’ point of view and not necessarily those of all members of the ABIDA project or the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Containing the bulk of Morris Cohen's writings on the philosophy of law, this collection of essays features articles originally published in popular periodicals and law reviews during the early decades of this century. In his introduction to the Social and Moral Thought edition, Harry N. Rosenfield reviews Cohen's contributions to the philosophy of law and emphasizes Cohen's enormous influence, as a legal philosopher, on American law.

However, unlike conventional legal theory, this volume seeks to provide an answer in terms of a general social theory: a methodology that answers this question in a manner applicable not only to law, but also to all the other complex and highly differentiated systems within modern society, such as politics, the economy, religion, the media, and education. This truly sociological approach offers profound insights into the relationships between law and all of these other social systems.

This book assesses the role of social justice in legal scholarship and its potential future development by focusing upon the ‘leading works’ of the discipline. The rise of socio-legal studies over recent decades has led to a more interdisciplinary approach to the study of law, which prioritises placing law into its wider social context. Recognising the role that culture, economics and politics play in the development of law is important in order to fully understand the position and impact of law in society. Innovative and written in an engaging way, this collection includes leading and emerging scholars from across the world. Each contributor has been invited to select and analyse a ‘leading work’, a publication which has for them shed light on the way that law and social justice are interlinked and has influenced their own understanding, scholarship, advocacy, and, in some instances, activism. The book also includes a specially written foreword and afterword, which critically reflect upon the contributions of the 'leading works' to consider the role that social justice has played in law and legal education and the likely future path for social justice in legal scholarship. This book will be an essential resource for all those working in the areas of social justice, socio-legal studies and legal philosophy. It will be of wider interest to the social sciences more generally.

The much-anticipated Second Edition of "Psychological Problems, Social Issues, and Law" offers updated research, legal cases, and new examples. The text uses historical and systems perspectives to examine the interaction between the social science community and the law. Each chapter contains a historical or a philosophical introduction to a problem, followed by discussion of the major legal issues and reviews of a wide range of research, including experimental literature. In addition to addressing many topics typically covered in psychology and law texts, Levine emphasizes social problems, dealing with issues such as abortion, intimate partner violence, divorce and custody, child protection, and more."