By Tim Kaye, editor

Amid the current economic and social gloom, and with a Presidential election on the horizon, we find ourselves faced with a veritable plethora of proposals as to how the law should be reformed, or the Constitution interpreted, in order to improve the lot of both citizens and corporations. The essays in this book take a step back, and question the assumptions on which many of these proposals are based. One doubts the very notion of "political morality" which is suffused throughout current legal and political discourse. A second argues that attempts at law reform often fail because we too easily underestimate the essential differences between the legal system on the one hand, and politics and morality on the other. Another shows how such misguided proposals can produce a law which fails every conceivable test of justice. A fourth argues that, in any event, private law-making is often far more powerful than that which takes place in legislatures; while another contributor argues that debates on Constitutional interpretation fail to appreciate that the Constitution is not law at all, but something much more important. In short, these essays challenge much of the conventional wisdom on law and its role in society today. They are essential reading for those who care about law and the legal system, and the uses to which they are put.

Dr. Tim Kaye is a Professor of Law at Stetson University College of Law, in Gulfport, Florida, where he teaches Torts, Products Liability, Constitutional Interpretation, and Jurisprudence. He was formerly Associate Dean at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, and has also taught at law schools in Germany and Lithuania. As well as publishing widely, he was commissioned three times by the Estonian government to carry out evaluations of law teaching at higher education institutions in Estonia, and co-wrote the United Kingdom's general guidance for schools on the Human Rights Act.

November 2011, Paperback 268 pages