A history of American law / Lawrence M. Friedman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Friedman, Lawrence M. (Lawrence Meir), 1930-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Law--United States--History.

Law.

United States.

History.

Physical Description:

xx, 620 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

Third edition, revised Touchstone edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Simon & Schuster, 2005.

Summary:

In this brilliant and immensely readable book, Lawrence M. Friedman tells the whole fascinating story of American law from its beginnings in the colonies to the present day. By showing how close the life of the law is to the economic and political life of the country, he makes a complex subject understandable and engrossing. "A History of American Law" presents the achievements and failures of the American legal system in the context of America's commercial and working world, family practices, and attitudes toward property, government, crime, and justice.

Now completely revised and updated, this groundbreaking work incorporates new material regarding slavery, criminal justice, and twentieth-century law. For laymen and students alike, this remains the only comprehensive authoritative history of American law.

Contents:

Part I The Beginnings: American Law in the Colonial Period 1

The Skeleton of Colonial Law: The Courts

The Colonial Judicial System in the Eighteenth Century

Civil Procedure

Land Law

Succession at Death

Criminal Law

Government, Law, and the Economy

Commerce and Labor

Slavery

The Poor Laws

Statute and Common Law in the Colonial Period

The Legal Profession

The Literature of the Law

Part II From the Revolution to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century: 1776-1850 63

Chapter 1 The Republic of Bees 65

Revolutionary Ardor

Constitutions: Federal and State

The Judges

The Organization of Courts

The Law of Evidence

Chapter 2 Outposts of the Law: The Frontier and the Civil Law Fringe 105

The Civil Law Fringe

Chapter 3 Law and the Economy: 1776-1850 120

Laissez-Faire and Its Limits

The Business Corporation

Chapter 4 The Law of Personal Status: Wives, Paupers, and Slaves 140

Marriage and Divorce

Family Property

Adoption

Poor Laws and Social Welfare

Slavery and African Americans

Chapter 5 An American Law of Property 167

The Land: A National Treasure

The Law of Private Land

Boom and Bust: The Law of Mortgages

Succession: Wills and Trusts

Intellectual Property: Patents and Copyrights

Chapter 6 The Law of Commerce and Trade 189

A Federal Question: Admiralty and General Commerce

Sale of Goods

Bankruptcy and Insolvency

Contract

Chapter 7 Crime and Punishment: And a Footnote on Tort 207

Penal Law and Penal Reform

The Substantive Law of Crimes

The Crime of Punishment: The American Prison

A Footnote on Tort

Chapter 8 The Bar and Its Works 226

The Bar

Organization of the Bar

Legal Education

Part III American Law to the Close of the Nineteenth Century 251

Chapter 1 Blood and Gold: Some Main Themes in the Law in the Last Half of the Nineteenth Century 253

The New Era

Organic Law

State Constitutions

The West

Chapter 2 Judges and Courts: 1850-1900 279

Judicial Organization

Chapter 3 Procedure and Practice: An Age of Reform 293

Mr. Field's Code

Appellate Courts

Codification and Reform

Chapter 4 The Land and Other Property 309

The Transformation of Land Law

The Public Land

Property Law and the Dynasts

Landlord and Tenant

Mortgages

The Decline of Dower

A Tangle of Titles

Intellectual Property: Patents, Copyrights, and Trademarks

Chapter 5 Administrative Law and Regulation of Business 329

The Coming of the Bureaucrats

Regulating the Infrastructure: Banks, Insurance, and Railroads

Occupational Licensing: And the Pull of Public Health

The Great Antitrust Act

Chapter 6 Torts 350

Chapter 7 The Underdogs: 1850-1900 367

The Dependent Poor

Family Law and the Status of Women

The Races

Chapter 8 The Law of Corporations 390

Corporation Law: Freedoms and Restraints

A Discordant Addendum: The Municipal Corporation

Chapter 9 Commerce, Labor, and Taxation 404

Negotiable Instruments

The Law of Sales

The Usury Laws

Insurance

Bankruptcy

Admiralty

Labor and Law

Federal Taxation

State and Local Tax

Death Taxes

Chapter 10 Crime and Punishment 434

The Many Faces of Criminal Law

The Statute Law of Crimes

Crime, Crime Rates, Insanity, the Guilty Mind

Punishment and Correction

Victimless Crimes

Chapter 11 The Legal Profession: The Training and Literature of Law 463

The Rise of the Law School

Legal Periodicals and Casebooks

Chapter 12 The Legal Profession: At Work 483

The Nimble Profession

Admission to the Bar

Part IV The Twentieth Century 501

Chapter 1 Leviathan Comes of Age 503

Center and Periphery

Chapter 2 The Growth of the Law 516

The Liability Explosion: Workers' Compensation

More Explosions: Tort Law

The Constitution, Rights, and Civil Liberties in the Twentieth Century

First Nations

Asian Americans

Hispanics

The Revolt of Otherness

Freedom of Speech

Religion and the Law

Chapter 3 Internal Legal Culture in the Twentieth Century: Lawyers, Judges, and Law Books 538

Legal Ethics

The Organized Bar

Legal Literature

The Twentieth Century Bench

Chapter 4 Regulation, Welfare, and the Rise of Environmental Law 554

Land Use

Environment Law and the Environmental Movement

Intellectual Property

Regulation of Business

Business Law and the Law of Business

Chapter 5 Crime and Punishment in the Twentieth Century 567

Decriminalizing Sex and Vice

Defendants' Rights

The Death Penalty

Crime Waves and the National Response

Chapter 6 Family Law in the Twentieth Century 576.

Notes:

"A Touchstone book."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 585-593) and index.

ISBN:

0684869888

OCLC:

57414325