Ronald Dworkin once imagined law as an empire and judges as its princes. But over time, the arc of law has bent steadily toward deference to the administrative state. Adrian Vermeule argues that law has freely abandoned its imperial pretensions, and has done so for internal legal reasons. In area after area, judges and lawyers, working out the logical implications of legal principles, have come to believe that administrators should be granted broad leeway to set policy, determine facts, interpret ambiguous statutes, and even define the boundaries of their own jurisdiction. Agencies have greater democratic legitimacy and technical competence to confront many issues than lawyers and judges do. And as the questions confronting the state involving climate change, terrorism, and biotechnology (to name a few) have become ever more complex, legal logic increasingly indicates that abnegation is the wisest course of action. As Law’s Abnegation makes clear, the state did not shove law out of the way. The judiciary voluntarily relegated itself to the margins of power. The last and greatest triumph of legalism was to depose itself.

Sports Law has quickly developed into an accepted area of academic study and practice in the legal profession globally. In Europe and North America, Sports Law has been very much a part of the legal landscape for about four decades, while in more recent times, it has blossomed in other geographic regions, including the Commonwealth Caribbean. This book recognizes the rapid evolution of Sports Law and seeks to embrace its relevance to the region. This book offers guidance, instruction and legal perspectives to students, athletes, those responsible for the administration of sport, the adjudication of sports-related disputes and the representation of athletes in the Caribbean. It addresses numerous important themes from a doctrinal, socio-legal and comparative perspective, including sports governance, sports contracts, intellectual property rights and doping in sport, among other thought-provoking issues which touch and concern sport in the Commonwealth Caribbean. As part of the well-established Routledge Commonwealth Caribbean Law Series, this book adds to the Caribbean-centric jurisprudence that has been a welcome development across the region. With this new book, the authors assimilate the applicable case law and legislation into one location in order to facilitate an easier consumption of the legal scholarship in this increasingly important area of law.

Cass and Hylton explain how technological advances strengthen the case for intellectual property laws, and argue convincingly that IP laws help create a wealthier, more successful, more innovative society than alternative legal systems. Ignoring the social value of IP rights and making what others create “free” would be a costly mistake indeed.

The Impact of Regulatory Law on American Criminal Justice is designed to provide the reader with an overview of American criminal justice from the perspective of regulatory law enforcement. Government's responsibility to defend the life and property of its citizens from victimization is accomplished through a code of criminal law enforced by a criminal justice system. In addition to laws that protect citizens, the government also enacts laws that criminalize certain behaviors that are deemed to be inconsistent with the best interests of society. These are called regulatory laws, and their effect on the criminal justice system and society are the main focus of the book. Each of the book's three sections addresses one aspect of the overall problem. The first looks at the underlying motivations to enact regulatory laws, particularly those dealing with drugs, prostitution and firearms and the evolution of their enforcement over time. The effect of regulatory law enforcement on each part of the criminal justice system, the police, courts and corrections is examined in the second section of the book. The final section provides insight into the societal outcomes associated with the enforcement of regulatory laws. The book reveals a number of unanticipated consequences resulting from regulatory laws. Most notable is the criminal justice system's lack of resources to effectively enforce and process violations of law. Police do not have enough officers to fully enforce all laws. Yet, they make more arrests than the courts can adequately adjudicate. The judicial process is so overwhelmed that it must rely on plea negotiations in order to circumvent the lengthy trial process thereby reducing criminal charges and/or terms of incarceration. Also, more people are convicted than the correctional facilities can house. Even so, America incarcerates a higher proportion of its population than any other country. Other criminal justice consequences of regulatory law include police corruption, overcrowded prisons and the domination by prison gangs as well as high rates of recidivism. Societal costs of incarceration are numerous and have had a particularly profound effect on minorities and disadvantaged communities in terms of poverty, lost human potential, contagious diseases both in and out of prison, 1.5 million children of current inmates and the perpetuation of a social underclass. The Teacher's Manual is available electronically on a CD or via email. Please contact Beth Hall at [email protected] to request a copy. PowerPoint slides are available upon adoption. Sample slides from the full, 171-slide presentation are available to view here. Email [email protected] for more information.

Vodou has often served as a scapegoat for Haiti’s problems, from political upheavals to natural disasters. This tradition of scapegoating stretches back to the nation’s founding and forms part of a contest over the legitimacy of the religion, both beyond and within Haiti’s borders. The Spirits and the Law examines that vexed history, asking why, from 1835 to 1987, Haiti banned many popular ritual practices. To find out, Kate Ramsey begins with the Haitian Revolution and its aftermath. Fearful of an independent black nation inspiring similar revolts, the United States, France, and the rest of Europe ostracized Haiti. Successive Haitian governments, seeking to counter the image of Haiti as primitive as well as contain popular organization and leadership, outlawed “spells” and, later, “superstitious practices.” While not often strictly enforced, these laws were at times the basis for attacks on Vodou by the Haitian state, the Catholic Church, and occupying U.S. forces. Beyond such offensives, Ramsey argues that in prohibiting practices considered essential for maintaining relations with the spirits, anti-Vodou laws reinforced the political marginalization, social stigmatization, and economic exploitation of the Haitian majority. At the same time, she examines the ways communities across Haiti evaded, subverted, redirected, and shaped enforcement of the laws. Analyzing the long genealogy of anti-Vodou rhetoric, Ramsey thoroughly dissects claims that the religion has impeded Haiti’s development.