New Books in Law

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Greg Eghigian, “The Corrigible and the Incorrigible: Science, Medicine, and the Convict in Twentieth-Century Germany” (U. of Michigan Press, 2015) Sep 09, 2016

Show notes

When I first read Foucault’s Discipline and Punish as an undergrad, I remember wondering, “What does this look like, though? How might the disciplining of the body play out in different places?” Greg Eghigian, author of The Corrigible and the Incorrigible: Science, Medicine, and the Convict in Twentieth-Century Germany (University of Michigan Press, 2015) and Associate Professor of History at Pennsylvania State University, answers that question and more about the evolution of incarceration in modern Germany. Eghigian’s background is in both German history and the history of science, and his expertise in the latter shines through as he explores discourses of criminality among professionals in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, sociology, criminology, and medicine. He has done extensive previous work on the understanding and treatment of madness in modern Europe, and shows that many of the same concerns that motivated physicians, psychoanalysts, and reformers in the emerging field of psychology occupied criminologists in twentieth-century Germany, as well. Perhaps most importantly, the book provides a chronicle of how carceral norms emerge and evolve, one particularly instructive for an America which currently imprisons nearly 2.5 million of its people.

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Martha Nussbaum, “Anger and Forgiveness: Resentment, Generosity, Justice” (Oxford UP, 2016) Sep 01, 2016

Show notes

Anger is among the most familiar phenomena in our moral lives. It is common to think that anger is an appropriate, and sometimes morally required, emotional response to wrongdoing and injustice. In fact, our day-to-day lives are saturated with inducements not only to become angry, but to embrace the idea that anger is morally righteous. However, at the same time, were all familiar with the ways in which anger can go morally wrong. We know that anger can eat away at us; it can render us morally blind; it can engulf our entire lives. So one might wonder: What exactly is the point of anger?

In Anger and Forgiveness: Resentment, Generosity, Justice (Oxford University Press, 2016), Martha Nussbaum argues that, in its most familiar forms, anger is not only pointless, but morally confused and pernicious. Drawing lessons from the Stoics, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Nussbaum advocates replacing anger with forms of generosity, friendship, justice, and kindness. She develops her critique of anger across the spectrum of human experience, from the intimate, to the interpersonal, and eventually the political. Along the way, she proposes important revisions to common ideas about punishment, justice, and social reform.

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Roberta Rosenthal Kwall, “The Myth of the Cultural Jew: Culture and Law in Jewish Tradition” (Oxford UP, 2015) Aug 29, 2016

Show notes

In The Myth of the Cultural Jew: Culture and Law in Jewish Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2015), Roberta Rosenthal Kwall, the Raymond P. Niro Professor of Intellectual Property Law at DePaul University College of Law, applies a cultural analysis framework to Jewish law, to show that Jewish culture has a grounding in Jewish law. The evolution of Jewish law is guided and shaped by human elements and shifting power dynamics. Kwall argues that both law and culture are necessary for forging meaningful Jewish identity.

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Samantha Barbas, “Laws of Image: Privacy and Publicity in America” (Stanford Law Books, 2016) Aug 25, 2016

Show notes

In her new book Laws of Image: Privacy and Publicity in America (Stanford Law Books, 2016), Samantha Barbas provides a history of Americans’ use of law to manage their public image. She approaches this endeavor from the perspective of a legal and cultural historian, tracking the correlation between a growing American image consciousness and the rise of laws, such as the tort of invasion of privacy and damages for emotional distress, which enabled individuals to control and defend their public persona.

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Kathleen J.P. Tabor and Jan I. Berlage, “Maryland Equine Law: A Legal Guide to Horse Ownership and Activities” (Go Dutch Publishing, 2011) Aug 17, 2016

Show notes

In this podcast I interview Kathleen J.P. Tabor, Esq. about a book she co-wrote with Jan I. Berlage, Maryland Equine Law: A Legal Guide to Horse Ownership and Activities (Go Dutch Publishing, 2011). Attorney Tabor describes how her practice as an Equine Lawyer brings her in touch with diverse areas of the law such as contract law, international law, and tort law. She also discusses how effective lawyering by attorneys who understand the horse industry help maintain positive relationships between and among equestrians.

Kathleen is a solo practitioner of the Law Office of Kathleen J.P. Tabor, LLC, a general civil practice with a special focus on agricultural and equine businesses, activities, and ownership. Her practice has taken her all across the State of Maryland. In addition to her legal training, Kathleen is a trained mediator and collaborative practitioner. A life-member of the Maryland Horse Council, Kathleen was recently elected to the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors. She also serves on the advisory board of Maryland Fund for Horses, Inc. She is a member of the Maryland Farm Bureau, the American Horse Council, American College of Equine Attorneys and the American Agricultural Law Association (to name a few). Kathleen currently serves as the Trade and Support Industries representative on the Maryland Horse Industry Board, appointed by the Governor in 2009. Kathleen is also founding member of the Agriculture Law Section and of the Animal Law Section of the Maryland State Bar Association. She serves as a mentor to UB Law students and to others interested in equine law and related activities. Among other speaking venues, she is a regular speaker at the Maryland Horse World Expo. She has authored articles on equine related legal and dispute resolution issues, authored MHCs Guide to County Zoning and Horses and along with Jan I. Berlage is co-author of the book, Maryland Equine Law: A Legal Guide to Horse Ownership and Activities.

Kathleen has had a life-long passion for horses. She is a pleasure rider, but also enjoys driving when the opportunity arises. She held a commercial carriage license driving Percherons and Belgians in the cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore and also held a pari-mutuel tellers license with the Maryland Jockey Club prior to law school.

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Marie Lall, “Understanding Reform in Myanmar: People and Society in the Wake of Military Rule” (Hurst, 2016) Aug 15, 2016

Show notes

A lot has been going on in Myanmar in the last few years, and even people who are deeply familiar with the country have had trouble following and interpreting the many changes. Fortunately, Marie Lall’s new book, Understanding Reform in Myanmar: People and Society in the Wake of Military Rule (Hurst, 2016), brings the close attention to events of someone who has been intimately involved in efforts for reform in Myanmar together with an informed reading of how and why reforms have succeeded. Beginning her narrative in 2005, Lall describes how even in the period of unmediated military rule in the mid-to-late 2000s, people in Myanmar began to anticipate and act to effect changes that at the time were not easily discerned, yet which gave rise to conditions that enabled the more substantive changes of the 2010s. Closing with the overwhelming victory of the National League for Democracy in the 2015 general elections she offers a sober but optimistic view of the country’s current conditions and future prospects.

Marie Lall joins New Books in Southeast Asian Studies to discuss Myanmar’s resilient civil society, the peace process, educational reforms, the rise of Buddhist nationalism, and hopes for years to come.

Nick Cheesman is a fellow at the College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University. He can be reached at nick.cheesman@anu.edu.au

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Michael Lesher, “Sexual Abuse, Shonda and Concealment in the Orthodox Jewish Communities” (McFarland, 2014) Aug 03, 2016

Show notes

Sexual Abuse, Shonda and Concealment in Orthodox Jewish Communities (McFarland, 2014) analyzes how and why cases of child sexual abuse have been systematically concealed in Orthodox Jewish communities. The book (the first of its kind) thoroughly examines a number of recent cover-ups in detail, showing how denial, backlash against victims, and the manipulation of the secular justice system have placed Orthodox Jewish community leaders in the position of defending, protecting, and enabling child abusers. The book also examines the disappointing treatment of this issue in popular media, while dissecting the institutions that contribute to the cover-ups, including two–rabbinic courts and local Orthodox “patrols”–that are more or less unique to Orthodox Jewish communities. Finally, the book explores the cultural factors that have contributed to this tragedy, and concludes with hopes and proposals for future reform

Michael Lesher, a writer and a lawyer, has published a number of articles about child abuse and is co-author of a book on the American family court system’s poor record of protecting children. An Orthodox Jew, he has also published short fiction and poetry and lives in Passaic, New Jersey.

The second part of this interview can be listened to here.

Jasun Horsley is the author of Seen & Not Seen: Confessions of a Movie Autist and several other books on extra-consensual perceptions. He has a weekly podcast called The Liminalist: The Podcast Between and a blog. For more info, go to http://auticulture.com.

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Josh Lambert, “Unclean Lips: Obscenity, Jews, and American Culture” (NYU Press, 2014) Jul 18, 2016

Show notes

In Unclean Lips: Obscenity, Jews, and American Culture (New York University Press, 2014), Josh Lambert, Academic Director of the Yiddish Book Center and Visiting Assistant Professor of English at UMass Amherst, explores the role of Jews in the history of obscenity in America. Through a series of case studies, he shows how Jews battled censorship as writers, editors, publishers, critics, and lawyers. In their engagements in battles over obscenity, Jews have played a previously underappreciated role in transforming American culture.

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Nick Cheesman, “Opposing the Rule of Law: How Myanmar’s Courts Make Law and Order” (Cambridge UP, 2016) Jun 30, 2016

Show notes

Working against the tendency to conflate the analytic categories “rule of law,” and “law and order,” Nick Cheesman’s Opposing the Rule of Law: How Myanmar’s Courts Make Law and Order (Cambridge University Press, 2015) makes a significant two-fold contribution, one as “the first serious attempt for half a century to situate Myanmar’s courts in its politics;” and the other, that rather than reproduce the binaried, linear thinking inherent to terms like “rule by law,” Cheesman exposes and repairs a significant conceptual weakness in rule of law scholarship through the analytic lens of law and order.

Martin Krygier writes, “Opposing the Rule of Law combines three elements rarely seen in one place: fine-grained, indeed masterly, unravelling of Myanmar criminal laws social and political history, character and significance; an original and sophisticated account of the rule of law and its enemies in Myanmar, generally, and in principle; and uncommonly fine prose. It is a tour de force, instructive–indeed illuminating–and a pleasure to read.” Eve Darian-Smith highlights the study’s rich empirical research and assesses the book as “an extraordinary achievement.” Engaging with Opposing the Rule of Law’scareful and nuanced analysis reveals that this praise, from leading scholars of rule of law, social theory, legal anthropology, and socio-legal studies, is well deserved.

Jothie Rajah is Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation, Chicago. She writes on rule of law discourses and can be reached at jrajah@abfn.org.

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Marlene Trestman, “Fair Labor Lawyer: The Remarkable Life of New Deal Attorney and Supreme Court Advocate Bessie Margolin” (Louisiana State UP, 2016) Jun 26, 2016

Show notes

As a trailblazing attorney, Bessie Margolin lived a life of exceptional achievement. At a time when the legal profession consisted almost entirely of men, she earned the esteem of her colleagues and rose to become one of the most successful Supreme Court advocates of her era. Doing so, as Marlene Trestman demonstrates in Fair Labor Lawyer: The Remarkable Life of New Deal Attorney and Supreme Court Advocate Bessie Margolin (Louisiana State University Press, 2016), required overcoming not just the ingrained assumptions that men had towards professional women during that time but also the poverty of her early childhood and the loss of her mother when Margolin was only three years old. As Trestman reveals, Margolin exploited to the full the opportunities she was given as a ward of the Jewish Orphans Home in New Orleans, which provided her with a comfortable upbringing and a good education. From Newcomb College and Tulane University, Margolin went on to a fellowship at Yale University and a career in the federal government, which she began by participating in the defense of some of the most important laws to come out of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal program and concluded by championing measures mandating equal pay and opposing age discrimination. And yet Trestman shows that for all of the sacrifices she made to establish a career for herself, Margolin did so on her own terms and in a way that many Americans can relate to today.

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