Law and the Protection of Democracy - by Yvonne Cripps (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This ground-breaking book of essays proposes harmonious uses of public policy and law to protect the rights and interests of people around the world: their freedoms, their creativity, and their environment, against a background of challenges to democracy. It is written in terms of a music of law, in honor of Alfred C. Aman, Jr., a jazzman law professor, Dean emeritus, and distinguished University of Rochester Life Trustee, whose life and work exemplify the highest standards. The essays, written by distinguished judges, administrators, and scholars whom Professor Aman has inspired and mentored, address in new and compelling ways many of the most pressing issues of our time, including environmental protection, voting rights, constitutional originalism, freedom of speech and the press, racial and gender equality, artificial intelligence, and, not least, the importance of mentorship in legal, educational, and other spheres. The over-arching theme charts how the sometimes-unheard music of law can, if ingeniously composed and performed, protect people and democracy. Edited by Yvonne Cripps. Contributors: Nathan D. Alder, Dan Cole, Lloyd Green, Carol Greenhouse, David Hamilton, Jay Krishnan, Tzu-Yi Lin, Christiana Ochoa, Aviva Orenstein, Arantxa Recarte, Lauren Robel, Landyn Rookard, Susan Williams, Elisabeth Zoller"--

Book Synopsis

Highly topical collection of innovative essays on the protection of democracy by eminent contributors from the judiciary, the practicing legal profession, the academy, and the realm of journalism.

With international safeguards for democracy showing signs of fragility as they come under various forms of attack, the vitality of the legal imagination will be essential to the future of the democratic rule of law. This collection of essays undertakes an innovative and timely assessment of the legal system's capacity for self-renewal. In its focus on law as a creative project in the service of democracy, the volume honors Alfred C. Aman Jr., a distinguished law professor, administrator, jazz musician, and scholar. Aman's extensive body of work includes farsighted, and ultimately optimistic, writings drawing attention to the potential of law reform as a means of addressing democracy deficits in the United States.

This book provides a timely, even urgent, analysis of current challenges to democracy, tackling questions of Constitutional interpretation, separation of Church and State, press freedom, personhood, admissibility of evidence, environmental protection, and legal education, among other issues. Beyond current problems, authors consider resources for renewal in unexpected places, for example, looking to mentorship in legal education as support for democratic imagination and to processes of interpretation, improvisation, and generative dissonance as exemplified in music in ways that are relevant to law. The essays relate to the United States and other jurisdictions that, like the US, have fought hard for their freedoms and democracy through law.

Edited by Yvonne Cripps. Contributors: Nathan D. Alder, Dan Cole, Lloyd Green, Carol Greenhouse, David Hamilton, Jay Krishnan, Tzu-Yi Lin, Christiana Ochoa, Aviva Orenstein, Arantxa Recarte, Lauren Robel, Landyn Rookard, Susan Williams, Elisabeth Zoller.

This book will be made Open Access (license CC BY-NC-ND) within three years of publication thanks to Path to Open, a program developed in partnership between JSTOR, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), University of Michigan Press, and The University of North Carolina Press to bring about equitable access and impact for the entire scholarly community, including authors, researchers, libraries, and university presses around the world. Learn more at https: //about.jstor.org/path-to-open/.