Law in America: A Short History (UNIVERSAL HISTORY) - Tapa dura

Why are the American newspapers so full of material about the legal system? What makes law so central to American society? Where does all this law come from? Is all this emphasis on law and legal matters good for a country, or is it a sign of some deep-seated pathology? What IS American law and how did it get this way? These are some of the questions addressed by this book, written by America's finest legal historian. The American legal system, like the English, is based on the common law. According to America's greatest Supreme Court judge, Oliver Wendell Holmes, in the common law the judge 'first decides the case and then decides the principle'. This is precisely the opposite of what happens in the Continental European system. By understanding the world's most active and evolved common law system the reader will also learn a great deal about English law and society.

Lawrence M. Friedman is Marion Rice Kirkwood Professor of Law at Stanford University. He is the author or editor of twenty-three books, including THE LEGAL SYSTEM: A SOCIAL SCIENCE IN PERSPECTIVE, AMERICAN LAW IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, A HISTORY OF AMERICAN LAW and CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN AMERICAN HISTORY. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.