"This publication has been prepared for use in conjunction with the mid-winter program of the Fidelity & Surety Law Committee of the Tort Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association, held in San Francisco, California on January 30, 1998"--P. iii.

Montana's state constitution was created during the early 1970s. Progressive, innovative and pragmatic, it combines a strong concern for individual rights, personal liberty, and individual dignity while seeking to keep government open and responsive to the will of the people of Montana. It also stresses rights to a clean and healthful environment. The Montana State Constitution is the first reference guide to offer an in-depth analysis of the state's constitutional history. In it, Larry Elison and Fritz Snyder provide the text of the constitution, its meaning, and its legal interpretations. It is an excellent research tool for those interested in Montana's constitutional history and case law, and it includes a comprehensive bibliographic essay dealing with available primary and secondary research sources. Previously published by Greenwood, this title has been brought back in to circulation by Oxford University Press with new verve. Re-printed with standardization of content organization in order to facilitate research across the series, this title, as with all titles in the series, is set to join the dynamic revision cycle of The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States. The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States is an important series that reflects a renewed international interest in constitutional history and provides expert insight into each of the 50 state constitutions. Each volume in this innovative series contains a historical overview of the state's constitutional development, a section-by-section analysis of its current constitution, and a comprehensive guide to further research. Under the expert editorship of Professor G. Alan Tarr, Director of the Center on State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers University, this series provides essential reference tools for understanding state constitutional law. Books in the series can be purchased individually or as part of a complete set, giving readers unmatched access to these important political documents.

Some half million Chinese immigrants settled in the American West in the nineteenth century. In spite of their vital contributions to the economy in gold mining, railroad construction, the founding of small businesses, and land reclamation, the Chinese were targets of systematic political discrimination and widespread violence. This legal history of the Chinese experience in the American West, based on the author’s lifetime of research in legal sources all over the West—from California to Montana to New Mexico—serves as a basic account of the legal treatment of Chinese immigrants in the West. The first two essays deal with anti-Chinese racial violence and judicial discrimination. The remainder of the book examines legal precedents and judicial doctrines derived from Chinese cases in specific western states. The Chinese, Wunder shows, used the American legal system to protect their rights and test a variety of legal doctrines, making vital contributions to the legal history of the American West.