JURIST: Books-on-Law is edited by Ronald K.L. Collins and David Skover of the Seattle University School of Law

Editorial Consultants:

Dennis M. Patterson: prolific, eclectic, seldom cryptic, and always analytic.

When not trading internet stocks, Professor Patterson is busy making a name for himself as a "jurisprude" with whom to be reckoned.  Law and Truth (Oxford, 1996), Wittgenstein and Legal Theory, editor (Westview, 1992), and Postmodernism and Law, editor (NYU Press, 1994) evidence his claim to the jurisprudential mantle.  And, then, there is his Blackwell Anthology for Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory, just released in paperback.  Moreover, his more doctrinal thinking is not limited to any single legal subject, such as constitutional law.   Consider, for example, his Good Faith and Lender Liability: Toward a Unified Theory (Butterworth, 1990), and, coming this July, An Introduction to Commercial Law (with Richard Highland) (West Publishing).  He is a man on the cerebral move.

His latest work: Introduction to the Philosophy of Law: Readings and Cases (Oxford University Press, 1999), co-authored with Jefferson White (Philosophy, University of Maine).  Of the book, Patterson says: "Professor White and I want to change the way Legal Philosophy is taught."  To this end, they do not confine their discussion to "hot button" issues, such as abortion, flag-burning, and sex discrimination.  They widen the theoretical spectrum to include legal thought related to torts, contracts, and property.  True to that perspective, the materials in this introduction include excerpts from a variety of thinkers (e.g., Aristotle, Posner, Bobbitt) and cases (e.g. Hamer v. Sidway and Dillon v. Legg).

We invited Professor Patterson to share with us, in abbreviated form, some of his views on contemporary jurisprudential thinkers. Here they are, in the proverbial nutshell:

• Richard Posner: "Would be better if he wrote less."

• Stanley Fish: "The sophist of our age."

• Daniel Farber & Suzanna Sherry: "They ask good questions but their analysis needs more depth."

• Drucilla Cornell: "Never could get it, still don’t get it."

• Frederick Schauer: "Always interesting . . . and over-committed."

• Randy Barnett: "Underappreciated."

• Mark Tushnet: "Red, White and Blue is the best articulation of prudentialism in constitutional theory."

• Anthony Sebok: "An up-and-comer in comparative tort theory."

• Cass Sunstein: "Wherever one turns in contemporary legal theory, one finds Cass Sunstein."

"From its inception, divorce offered some independence for women."  So said Norma Basch, a history professor, in a recent interview with Books-on-Law.  The point is richly advanced in her just-published book, Framing American Divorce From the Revolutionary Generation to the Victorians (University of California Press, 1999).   At a time when there is so much public talk curbing the rule and reach of divorce laws, this book offers a much-needed historical standard by which to evaluate the wisdom of various proposals.

Professor Basch discusses and examines divorce during the formative years of both the nation and its law, roughly 1770 to 1870.  This is the period, she told us, between which "divorce was broadly legitimated in the wake of the American Revolution" to the time (1870) when it "was firmly in place." Framing American Divorce is divided into three discrete but chronologically overlapping parts.   In Part I, "Rules," Basch analyzes the changing legal and legislative aspects of divorce and the public response to them.  Part II, "Mediations," focuses on individual cases and presents a close-up analysis of the way ordinary women and men tested the law in the courts.  And Part III, "Representations," charts the spiraling imagery of divorce through various fictive and non-fictive narratives that made their way into American popular culture during the 19^th Century.

In the course of this discussion the author tackles such subjects as child custody, alimony, and spousal abuse.  Divorce, Professor Basch argues, was always a focal point of conflict between the autonomy of women and the authority of men.  Having made her historical case, she brings her findings up-to-date with a provocative discussion of the current debate over fault vs. no-fault divorce.

Norma Basch is also the author of In the Eyes of the Law: Women, Marriage, and Property in Nineteenth-Century New York (Cornell University Press, 1982).

• Howard Ball, reviewing Scott D. Gerber, First Principles: The Jurisprudence of Clarence Thomas (New York University Press, 1999)

• Michael Fischl, reviewing Pierre Schlag, The Enchantment of Reason (Duke University Press, 1998)

• Susan Herman, reviewing George C. Thomas III, Double Jeopardy: The History, The Law (New York University Press, 1998)

• Stephen L. Kass, reviewing Paul S. Kibel, The Earth on Trial: Environmental Law on the International Stage (Routledge, 1999)

• James M. O'Fallon, reviewing Mark Tushnet, Taking the Constitution Away from the Courts (Princeton University Press, 1999)

• Mary-Christine Sungaila, reviewing Cathy Young, Ceasefire! Why Women and Men Must Join Forces to Achieve True Equality (Free Press, 1999)

Ronald K.L. Collins & David M. Skover, Editors, Books-on-Law

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JURIST: Books-on-Law™ is edited by Ronald K.L. Collins and David M. Skover of the Seattle University School of Law.

Board of Editorial Consultants: Raj Bhala, George Washington University Law School; Miriam Galston, George Washington University Law School; Kermit Hall, Ohio State University College of Law; Yale Kamisar, University of Michigan Law School; Lisa G. Lerman, Catholic University of America School of Law; David M. O'Brien, University of Virginia Department of Government and Foreign Affairs; Judith Resnik, Yale Law School; Edwin L. Rubin, University of Pennsylvania Law School; Steven H. Shriffrin, Cornell Law School; Nadine Strossen, New York Law School; David B. Wilkins, Harvard Law School.

Administrative Assistant for Books-on-Law: Ms. Nancy Ammons

© Ronald K.L. Collins and David Skover, 1999. —————————————————————————————
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© Bernard J. Hibbitts, 1999. All rights reserved. These pages may not be copied, reposted, or republished, in whole or in part, electronically or in print, without express written permission.

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