Understanding Property Law Review

After debating whether to buy this book or Glannon’s I bought both. Even after glancing over both of them I can’t tell which is generally better. They are formatted differently. Glannon’s book is written in an outline format, which would probably make it easier to study straight from if you are running low on time. But I often found myself coming to Sprankling’s book whenever I had a hard time understanding a concept. In my opinion, Sprankling has a better way of explaining concepts and is a more enjoyable read. This book is definitely tied for first place when it comes to Property supplements. Either buy this book… or buy Glannon’s… or buy both!

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Related Products

• Understanding Criminal Law
• Constitutional Law: Principles And Policies (Introduction to Law Series)
• Property Examples & Explanations, 3e
• Understanding Torts
• Understanding Contracts (Understanding Series (New York, N.Y.).)

Customer Reviews

Thank God for this book! – Emily Smith – Florida, USA
Property was not exactly my best subject in my 1L year, but let’s just say I would have been in major trouble on the final exam if I hadn’t studied from this book. I was completely confused in Property throughout almost the entire semester, but I outlined and studied from this book and it all made sense. I was able to understand concepts that never seemed to make sense in the classroom. I am SO thankful for this book. I really don’t believe I would have made it through Property without it.

This helped me ace property – elysianlight – paradiso perduto
I am a huge fan of the Lexis understanding series in general and this book is no exception – they were recommended to me by someone who blew away the competition first year and I aimed to follow suit. Read this book along with your casebook, don’t take notes on it, just read it as if reading a novel. It has some great diagrams and is very well organized. I read it cover to cover and referred back to it when outlining.

Must have book for Property Law – A Potential Philosopher – Fort Lauderdale, FL
This book is a MUST HAVE for 1L’s studying Property law. I used it for everything but Future Interests. Everything it covers is great. Super clear easy-to-understand explanations that will make you angry law schools don’t use supplements like this as textbooks. Like the reviewer above, there were many aspects of Property I didn’t understand going into finals’ week. This cleared up every one; from Covenants and Equitable Servitudes to Takings and Deeds, you name it. and you will understand it after reading this book. What Dressler’s is to Criminal Law, this is to Property.
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Mar 10, 2010 16:05:26

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Pre-paid Legal is the ONLY organization of its kind in America today. European citizens have, at least, an 80% participation in legal coverage. Prepaid legal is a great vehicle to accomplish this for those who choose to actively build their businesses. It is a real shame that some in this nation are not motivated to “get ahead” since welfare programs (for some) enable some to live a subsistence existence rather than strive for more. Prepaid Legal is the antithesis of those scams. Not only is this business opportunity an honest reputable home based business, but it also is very affordable at 99 dollars to get started in.

PPL does not want their associates to work online– they want you to travel to meetings, prospect in person, etc. They offer little or no online support and, if you don’t sign up a minimum amount of people within 6 months, they cancel your account (but not the contract you were forced to accept for their services) without warning or notice. PPL’s advocates have a tendency of blaming PPL’s barrage of negative press coverage on short-sellers of its stock (as opposed to the actual content of the negative press). In PPL’s defense, short selling is considered to be a questionable practice by many and there are plenty of abusive short sellers in the market.

Pre-Paid Legal boasts their “legal services plan.” The truth is that very few legal services are ever provided under the plan. If you have a criminal case, contrary to what you’ve been told, the plan is useless. However, they still have a product that everyone needs and could use at some point in their life. It would cost an average of $300.00 a year to be a member of this organization.

In conclusion, the PPL program does offer a nice product, but their compensation seems flawed. You really can’t make too much money in this business if that is what you are looking to do. Many people want to make money while working from home, rather than trying to solicit people off the street.

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Law and Revolution, II: The Impact of the Protestant Reformations on the Western Legal Tradition (v. 2) Review

This is a seminal books that continues in the tradition of the first volume of Law and Revolution. As the first volume did with the Catholic Church and the papal revolution, this second volume explores the Protestant Reformation of Lutheran Germany and Calvinist England and its influence in the formation of the Western legal system. The following is a brief overview of the main themes explored in the book.

1. Introduction
In his preface, Berman alludes to the first volume of Law and Revolution, which argued that “the Western legal tradition was formed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries under the impact of the Papal Revolution, which liberated the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church from control by emperors, kings, and feudal lords, and resulted in the creation of the first modern Western legal system, the Roman Catholic canon law” (p. ix). In the present volume, Berman explores the impact of the Protestant Reformation in Germany and in England on the Western legal tradition.

2. The Papal Revolution
The Western legal tradition originated in the efforts of Pope Gregory VII (ca. 1030-85) to liberate the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church from the control of temporal rulers and to subject them to the authority of the Church. This revolution, which came to be called the Papal Revolution or the Investiture Contest, spanned from 1075 to 1122. Gregory VII sought to establish Rome’s unrivaled authority over both secular and rulers and the clergy and the laymen. In the wars that followed, the Roman Catholic Church emerged as the first modern state with a body of law titled A Concordance of Discordant Canons. In this new state, the ecclesiastical courts resolved disputes and the Church’s canon laws ordered society.

3. The Protestant Reformation of Lutheran Germany
Berman begins Part I of his book with a detailed account of the Reformation and its spread throughout the German territories from 1517 to 1555. Berman recounts the Reformation as a popular movement that spread by its own force, but that would become accompanied by the emergence of the radical Anabaptists and Spiritualist sects, which, coupled with the Peasants’ War, would threaten peace and stability and would result in more than three decades of war that would finally come to a head in 1555, when an imperial diet was held to enact the Peace of Augsburg, bringing an end to the German civil wars by “permitting the prince of each territory to determine the religion of that territory”–Roman Catholic or Lutheran (p. 50).

The Western legal tradition was impacted by these developments. Luther would replace the “two swords” theory of Gregory VII in the Papal Revolution with a “two kingdoms” theory comprised of the invisible church of the heavenly kingdom governed by the Gospel and an earthly kingdom of this world governed by law. As a result of these new ideas, national legal systems in countries that remained Catholic began to develop and the powers of monarchs grew. In territories that split from Catholicism, princes became the temporal heads of their churches and states.

Berman goes on to discuss the effects of the Reformation on the law. In Luther’s legal philosophy, the role of the positive law was to make sinners conscious of their sinfulness, to deter sinners through threatening them with sanctions, and to educate and guide the righteous towards justice. In Germany, the abolition of Roman Catholic jurisdiction in Protestant principalities left gaps in German law, thus calling for a systematization of the laws, which Luther’s followers thus developed.

4. The Protestant Reformation of Calvinist England
In Part II of the book, Berman begins his discussion of the English Revolution with the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) between Catholics and Protestants in Europe. The war, which was triggered by the Augsburg Confession, involved most European nations and was finally resolved in 1648 by the Peace of Westphalia, which “asserted the sovereignty and equality of each constituent principality within the empire as well as of each of the other European states that were involved” (p. 203). It granted Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists freedom of conscience and the right of private worship.

As the Thirty Years’ War was coming to a close, England was cast into a civil war between King Charles I and parliamentarians who would ultimately raise an army to bring down the Monarchy. King Charles was publicly tried and executed, leading to a commonwealth led by Oliver Cromwell and later by his son Richard. A few years after the death of Oliver Cromwell, the Commonwealth descended into disorder under Richard Cromwell’s rule. General Monck, commander of troops in Scotland, believing the only way to restore order was to restore the Stuart Monarchy, brought the formerly purged members of Parliament back to their seats to set up a Council of State and invite Charles II back to the throne. The period from 1660 to 1688, when the House of Stuart was reinstituted under Charles II and later under his brother James II, was known as the Restoration, since it restored of the Stuart monarchy.

Some may argue that the English commonwealth under Cromwell was but a mere aberration and that the Restoration of the English Monarchy simply returned the nation to its pre-1940 state of affairs. Berman, however, contends that the commonwealth had substantial lasting effects into the restored monarchy. For example, prior to 1640, the king ruled as an absolute monarch, only with parliament when he summoned it. After 1689, however, a constitutional monarchy was formed and Parliament was the supreme head of the nation. Under the Instrument of Government, a written constitution, separated the executive and legislative branches and other legislated established an independent judiciary. Although this system would ultimately fail, it set up a precursor for a future French Republic with separate powers.

Furthermore, prior to 1640, only the Church of England was a legitimate church in England, but after 1689, various dissenting Protestant churches were recognized and tolerated. Even Jews, who were expelled from England by King Edward I three centuries earlier, were invited to return in 1655. Moreover, whereas the pre-Revolution head of church was the king, by 1689, Parliament was the de facto head of the church.

Moreover, the Protestant Reformation of England led to many changes in the area of law. Judges were no longer to serve at the arbitrary will of the monarch; rather, they were given independence and life tenure. The Common law courts were made sovereign over the notorious prerogative courts of the House of Tudor. Juries became independent of judges and evidence law was introduced.

One further finds a shift in English legal philosophy during the English Reformation. Before the English Revolution, the views of James I on absolute monarchy can be said to have been the status quo among the rulers of England. James considered the king to be as the head of a body, the father in a family, and a god (resembling divine power on earth) and argued that God appoints monarchs to carry out his will on earth. Their power stems not from the social contract, but rather, from God directly.

On the opposite of this spectrum is the voice of Sir Edward Coke, an English jurist of the Seventeenth Century, who believed that the natural law was written on the heart of every man, for his preservation and direction. Though it precedes human laws, it is a part of the English common law, which is based on immemorial custom. It was “immutable” and “universal,” applying to all people, and even rulers were subject to it. Firmly maintaining that the king’s proclamations could not change the law and openly disobeying royal injunctions that he believed to be unjust, Coke Persisted in his writings and other activities, and helped frame the Petition of Right by 1628, a defense of the supremacy of the common law over the king.

After the English Revolution, one would find a new tone in the English monarchy. No longer was the king viewed as equal to the law, but rather, he was considered subject to it. William of Orange was therefore bound to the Declaration of Rights and Liberties of the Subject, which would in 1689 be enacted as a statute entitled the “Bill of Rights.” Thus, although the English monarchy was technically restored, its character was vastly different from that of the pre-1940 monarchy.

Law and Revolution, II: The Impact of the Protestant Reformations on the Western Legal Tradition (v. 2) Overview

Harold Berman’s masterwork narrates the interaction of evolution and revolution in the development of Western law. This new volume explores two successive transformations of the Western legal tradition under the impact of the sixteenth-century German Reformation and the seventeenth-century English Revolution, with particular emphasis on Lutheran and Calvinist influences. Berman examines the far-reaching consequences of these apocalyptic political and social upheavals on the systems of legal philosophy, legal science, criminal law, civil and economic law, and social law in Germany and England and throughout Europe as a whole.

Berman challenges both conventional approaches to legal history, which have neglected the religious foundations of Western legal systems, and standard social theory, which has paid insufficient attention to the communitarian dimensions of early modern economic law, including corporation law and social welfare.

Clearly written and cogently argued, this long-awaited, magisterial work is a major contribution to an understanding of the relationship of law to Western belief systems.

(20041112)

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

Related Products

• Law and Revolution, The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition
• Faith and Order : The Reconciliation of Law and Religion (Emory University Studies in Law and Religion)
• The Reformation of Rights: Law, Religion and Human Rights in Early Modern Calvinism
• Law and Protestantism: The Legal Teachings of the Lutheran Reformation
• God’s Joust, God’s Justice: Law and Religion in Western Tradition (Emory University Studies in Law and Religion)

Customer Reviews

Takes ideas seriously as factors in legal and economic change – K. Godleske – Freiburg, Germany
The two Law and Revolution books are indispensable to the list of must-reads for becoming truly educated, taking oneself beyond the usual litany of state-supportive propaganda found in textbooks and standard-issue academic output.

Berman is no ideologue, but he has great respect for the power of ideas. His agenda is to provide us with his best take on what he has found out about legal history on the basis of a tremendous grasp of the relevant historical material he has acquired. He also wants us to ask questions about where the Western Legal Tradition has come from and where it is going.

The level of depth, detail, clarity, and organization of this book is astounding. The author was a true teacher and clear researcher and thinker, and his deep knowledge of and reference to the original sources is impressive. His conclusions are not merely things he wanted to say anyway; they are rather thoroughly informed by the research and patterns presented and documented; he does not merely state his case; in good legal form, he makes his case.

The biggest takeaway for me is the thesis that the German and English revolutions coincided with comprehensive changes to legal philosophies, legal science, and substantive and procedural law (though all ultimately staying within the broad Western Legal Tradition) and that many of these changes were in harmony with the theological doctrines of the major Protestant reformations of the period, if not literally authored by some of their leaders, especially in the German case.

In contrast to Marxian and Weberian perspectives, religious changes begat legal changes, which begat, ultimately economic development to the extent that the legal changes enabled greater predictability and security of property and investments. Thus the “ideology” was not merely an apologetic excuse for economic changes, but was among their driving forces. Also, Berman argues that the impact of Protestantism on economic law came not primarily from an alleged “individualism,” by rather precisely from the communitarianism of Calvinist belief. For example, wide participation in subscriptions to the new format of the joint stock company was understood by many of the people actually engaged in it a form of mass action for the betterment of the world. One of Berman’s wider approaches is to take seriously what the people who were involved actually stated they were doing and what their own objectives were.

Another key point that I derived as I read was the degree to which these legal changes in the 16th and 17th centuries in Germany and England might be described as the institution of theocracies. Berman’s own thesis is that much more than a “secularization” of the formerly spiritual jurisdictions, as many historians would have it, these periods were characterized by a “spiritualization of the secular.” Indeed, the “secular” authorities took on, through their new laws and administrations, the religious tasks of enforcing religious morality and forwarding their view of what was needed in the secular world for the greater promotion of salvation, according to their Lutheran or Calvinist belief systems.

As I read this, I connected it with what I call do-gooder government, which survives to this day. This was a strong impulse in the direction of using the powers of the state to “do good” for people, to try to make them be better, etc. and even to explicitly reform society in a particularly religiously inspired image.

I would add that while these religious changes certainly inspired legal changes, there would also still have been a certain process of selection of viewpoints. The princes had to take up these changes to some extent. I would submit that only those religious beliefs that would serve certain power interests, particularly those who could help incubate them and use them to their own advantage, could have been taken up in this particular story. Other ideas would be ignored or worse. In other words, though these were revolutions, the parasitic apparatus of the proto-state was doing some evolutionary selection of ideologies. I do not take this to mean that these religious/legal innovators did not actually believe what they were teaching (Indeed, the scary thing reading this at times was the realization that they actually did believe many of these things!), rather that the tradition that grew and survived had to do so in a certain power context. To become part of a state religion, for example, a religious viewpoint would certainly have to be supportive of…well…the state. In pathetic joke form: Did you hear the one about the anti-state religion that become the official state religion? No punch line required.

The Consolidation of the Revolution – M. Johnson – Harrold, SD
This is a fitting capstone to Berman’s approach to Western law. At once more technically successful than his original work, while less universal in scope, it nevertheless exposes the unexamined rationales of policies and laws in effect today. Scholars may easily combine Berman’s insights with those of J.G.A. Pocock to examine English, and thus American, legal culture and poltics; likewise, they may examine continental data in light of the revolution described by Berman to examine the rise of Marxism, and Communist views of the place of the state in relation to the individual. Harold J. Berman’s scholarship is indispensable to the study of jurisprudence.

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Mar 10, 2010 00:00:25

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Law and Revolution, II: The Impact of the Protestant Reformations on the Western Legal Tradition (v. 2) Review

This is a seminal books that continues in the tradition of the first volume of Law and Revolution. As the first volume did with the Catholic Church and the papal revolution, this second volume explores the Protestant Reformation of Lutheran Germany and Calvinist England and its influence in the formation of the Western legal system. The following is a brief overview of the main themes explored in the book.

1. Introduction
In his preface, Berman alludes to the first volume of Law and Revolution, which argued that “the Western legal tradition was formed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries under the impact of the Papal Revolution, which liberated the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church from control by emperors, kings, and feudal lords, and resulted in the creation of the first modern Western legal system, the Roman Catholic canon law” (p. ix). In the present volume, Berman explores the impact of the Protestant Reformation in Germany and in England on the Western legal tradition.

2. The Papal Revolution
The Western legal tradition originated in the efforts of Pope Gregory VII (ca. 1030-85) to liberate the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church from the control of temporal rulers and to subject them to the authority of the Church. This revolution, which came to be called the Papal Revolution or the Investiture Contest, spanned from 1075 to 1122. Gregory VII sought to establish Rome’s unrivaled authority over both secular and rulers and the clergy and the laymen. In the wars that followed, the Roman Catholic Church emerged as the first modern state with a body of law titled A Concordance of Discordant Canons. In this new state, the ecclesiastical courts resolved disputes and the Church’s canon laws ordered society.

3. The Protestant Reformation of Lutheran Germany
Berman begins Part I of his book with a detailed account of the Reformation and its spread throughout the German territories from 1517 to 1555. Berman recounts the Reformation as a popular movement that spread by its own force, but that would become accompanied by the emergence of the radical Anabaptists and Spiritualist sects, which, coupled with the Peasants’ War, would threaten peace and stability and would result in more than three decades of war that would finally come to a head in 1555, when an imperial diet was held to enact the Peace of Augsburg, bringing an end to the German civil wars by “permitting the prince of each territory to determine the religion of that territory”–Roman Catholic or Lutheran (p. 50).

The Western legal tradition was impacted by these developments. Luther would replace the “two swords” theory of Gregory VII in the Papal Revolution with a “two kingdoms” theory comprised of the invisible church of the heavenly kingdom governed by the Gospel and an earthly kingdom of this world governed by law. As a result of these new ideas, national legal systems in countries that remained Catholic began to develop and the powers of monarchs grew. In territories that split from Catholicism, princes became the temporal heads of their churches and states.

Berman goes on to discuss the effects of the Reformation on the law. In Luther’s legal philosophy, the role of the positive law was to make sinners conscious of their sinfulness, to deter sinners through threatening them with sanctions, and to educate and guide the righteous towards justice. In Germany, the abolition of Roman Catholic jurisdiction in Protestant principalities left gaps in German law, thus calling for a systematization of the laws, which Luther’s followers thus developed.

4. The Protestant Reformation of Calvinist England
In Part II of the book, Berman begins his discussion of the English Revolution with the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) between Catholics and Protestants in Europe. The war, which was triggered by the Augsburg Confession, involved most European nations and was finally resolved in 1648 by the Peace of Westphalia, which “asserted the sovereignty and equality of each constituent principality within the empire as well as of each of the other European states that were involved” (p. 203). It granted Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists freedom of conscience and the right of private worship.

As the Thirty Years’ War was coming to a close, England was cast into a civil war between King Charles I and parliamentarians who would ultimately raise an army to bring down the Monarchy. King Charles was publicly tried and executed, leading to a commonwealth led by Oliver Cromwell and later by his son Richard. A few years after the death of Oliver Cromwell, the Commonwealth descended into disorder under Richard Cromwell’s rule. General Monck, commander of troops in Scotland, believing the only way to restore order was to restore the Stuart Monarchy, brought the formerly purged members of Parliament back to their seats to set up a Council of State and invite Charles II back to the throne. The period from 1660 to 1688, when the House of Stuart was reinstituted under Charles II and later under his brother James II, was known as the Restoration, since it restored of the Stuart monarchy.

Some may argue that the English commonwealth under Cromwell was but a mere aberration and that the Restoration of the English Monarchy simply returned the nation to its pre-1940 state of affairs. Berman, however, contends that the commonwealth had substantial lasting effects into the restored monarchy. For example, prior to 1640, the king ruled as an absolute monarch, only with parliament when he summoned it. After 1689, however, a constitutional monarchy was formed and Parliament was the supreme head of the nation. Under the Instrument of Government, a written constitution, separated the executive and legislative branches and other legislated established an independent judiciary. Although this system would ultimately fail, it set up a precursor for a future French Republic with separate powers.

Furthermore, prior to 1640, only the Church of England was a legitimate church in England, but after 1689, various dissenting Protestant churches were recognized and tolerated. Even Jews, who were expelled from England by King Edward I three centuries earlier, were invited to return in 1655. Moreover, whereas the pre-Revolution head of church was the king, by 1689, Parliament was the de facto head of the church.

Moreover, the Protestant Reformation of England led to many changes in the area of law. Judges were no longer to serve at the arbitrary will of the monarch; rather, they were given independence and life tenure. The Common law courts were made sovereign over the notorious prerogative courts of the House of Tudor. Juries became independent of judges and evidence law was introduced.

One further finds a shift in English legal philosophy during the English Reformation. Before the English Revolution, the views of James I on absolute monarchy can be said to have been the status quo among the rulers of England. James considered the king to be as the head of a body, the father in a family, and a god (resembling divine power on earth) and argued that God appoints monarchs to carry out his will on earth. Their power stems not from the social contract, but rather, from God directly.

On the opposite of this spectrum is the voice of Sir Edward Coke, an English jurist of the Seventeenth Century, who believed that the natural law was written on the heart of every man, for his preservation and direction. Though it precedes human laws, it is a part of the English common law, which is based on immemorial custom. It was “immutable” and “universal,” applying to all people, and even rulers were subject to it. Firmly maintaining that the king’s proclamations could not change the law and openly disobeying royal injunctions that he believed to be unjust, Coke Persisted in his writings and other activities, and helped frame the Petition of Right by 1628, a defense of the supremacy of the common law over the king.

After the English Revolution, one would find a new tone in the English monarchy. No longer was the king viewed as equal to the law, but rather, he was considered subject to it. William of Orange was therefore bound to the Declaration of Rights and Liberties of the Subject, which would in 1689 be enacted as a statute entitled the “Bill of Rights.” Thus, although the English monarchy was technically restored, its character was vastly different from that of the pre-1940 monarchy.

Law and Revolution, II: The Impact of the Protestant Reformations on the Western Legal Tradition (v. 2) Overview

Harold Berman’s masterwork narrates the interaction of evolution and revolution in the development of Western law. This new volume explores two successive transformations of the Western legal tradition under the impact of the sixteenth-century German Reformation and the seventeenth-century English Revolution, with particular emphasis on Lutheran and Calvinist influences. Berman examines the far-reaching consequences of these apocalyptic political and social upheavals on the systems of legal philosophy, legal science, criminal law, civil and economic law, and social law in Germany and England and throughout Europe as a whole.

Berman challenges both conventional approaches to legal history, which have neglected the religious foundations of Western legal systems, and standard social theory, which has paid insufficient attention to the communitarian dimensions of early modern economic law, including corporation law and social welfare.

Clearly written and cogently argued, this long-awaited, magisterial work is a major contribution to an understanding of the relationship of law to Western belief systems.

(20041112)

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

Related Products

• Law and Revolution, The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition
• Faith and Order : The Reconciliation of Law and Religion (Emory University Studies in Law and Religion)
• The Reformation of Rights: Law, Religion and Human Rights in Early Modern Calvinism
• Law and Protestantism: The Legal Teachings of the Lutheran Reformation
• God’s Joust, God’s Justice: Law and Religion in Western Tradition (Emory University Studies in Law and Religion)

Customer Reviews

Takes ideas seriously as factors in legal and economic change – K. Godleske – Freiburg, Germany
The two Law and Revolution books are indispensable to the list of must-reads for becoming truly educated, taking oneself beyond the usual litany of state-supportive propaganda found in textbooks and standard-issue academic output.

Berman is no ideologue, but he has great respect for the power of ideas. His agenda is to provide us with his best take on what he has found out about legal history on the basis of a tremendous grasp of the relevant historical material he has acquired. He also wants us to ask questions about where the Western Legal Tradition has come from and where it is going.

The level of depth, detail, clarity, and organization of this book is astounding. The author was a true teacher and clear researcher and thinker, and his deep knowledge of and reference to the original sources is impressive. His conclusions are not merely things he wanted to say anyway; they are rather thoroughly informed by the research and patterns presented and documented; he does not merely state his case; in good legal form, he makes his case.

The biggest takeaway for me is the thesis that the German and English revolutions coincided with comprehensive changes to legal philosophies, legal science, and substantive and procedural law (though all ultimately staying within the broad Western Legal Tradition) and that many of these changes were in harmony with the theological doctrines of the major Protestant reformations of the period, if not literally authored by some of their leaders, especially in the German case.

In contrast to Marxian and Weberian perspectives, religious changes begat legal changes, which begat, ultimately economic development to the extent that the legal changes enabled greater predictability and security of property and investments. Thus the “ideology” was not merely an apologetic excuse for economic changes, but was among their driving forces. Also, Berman argues that the impact of Protestantism on economic law came not primarily from an alleged “individualism,” by rather precisely from the communitarianism of Calvinist belief. For example, wide participation in subscriptions to the new format of the joint stock company was understood by many of the people actually engaged in it a form of mass action for the betterment of the world. One of Berman’s wider approaches is to take seriously what the people who were involved actually stated they were doing and what their own objectives were.

Another key point that I derived as I read was the degree to which these legal changes in the 16th and 17th centuries in Germany and England might be described as the institution of theocracies. Berman’s own thesis is that much more than a “secularization” of the formerly spiritual jurisdictions, as many historians would have it, these periods were characterized by a “spiritualization of the secular.” Indeed, the “secular” authorities took on, through their new laws and administrations, the religious tasks of enforcing religious morality and forwarding their view of what was needed in the secular world for the greater promotion of salvation, according to their Lutheran or Calvinist belief systems.

As I read this, I connected it with what I call do-gooder government, which survives to this day. This was a strong impulse in the direction of using the powers of the state to “do good” for people, to try to make them be better, etc. and even to explicitly reform society in a particularly religiously inspired image.

I would add that while these religious changes certainly inspired legal changes, there would also still have been a certain process of selection of viewpoints. The princes had to take up these changes to some extent. I would submit that only those religious beliefs that would serve certain power interests, particularly those who could help incubate them and use them to their own advantage, could have been taken up in this particular story. Other ideas would be ignored or worse. In other words, though these were revolutions, the parasitic apparatus of the proto-state was doing some evolutionary selection of ideologies. I do not take this to mean that these religious/legal innovators did not actually believe what they were teaching (Indeed, the scary thing reading this at times was the realization that they actually did believe many of these things!), rather that the tradition that grew and survived had to do so in a certain power context. To become part of a state religion, for example, a religious viewpoint would certainly have to be supportive of…well…the state. In pathetic joke form: Did you hear the one about the anti-state religion that become the official state religion? No punch line required.

The Consolidation of the Revolution – M. Johnson – Harrold, SD
This is a fitting capstone to Berman’s approach to Western law. At once more technically successful than his original work, while less universal in scope, it nevertheless exposes the unexamined rationales of policies and laws in effect today. Scholars may easily combine Berman’s insights with those of J.G.A. Pocock to examine English, and thus American, legal culture and poltics; likewise, they may examine continental data in light of the revolution described by Berman to examine the rise of Marxism, and Communist views of the place of the state in relation to the individual. Harold J. Berman’s scholarship is indispensable to the study of jurisprudence.

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Mar 09, 2010 15:55:11

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Principles of Tort Law (The Concise Hornbook Series) (Nutshell) Review

Little more to say than the title summary. That however is a demanding list of qualities for an introductory law textbook. What made the book valuable to me was that it gave me a clear understanding of the material immediately on reading it.

Principles of Tort Law (The Concise Hornbook Series) (Nutshell) Overview

This superb little book explains the principles of Torts for law students. Written by a scholar who has taught Torts for 37 years and written more than 20 books and many articles about torts and related subjects, it captures the essence of tort law in a way that tells students what they need to know to understand the subject.

Professor Shapo distills his experience in thousands of classes and his grading of thousands of examinations to identify the core questions that all law students must answer in Torts. He writes clearly about the rules that courts use to solve those questions, and he explains the reasoning and policies that underlie the rules. Selecting colorful examples from the enormous variety of cases he has studied, he constantly relates the principles of law to understandable real life situations.

The clear, crisp summaries of the law include references to such diverse matters as Paula Jones’ suit against Bill Clinton for intentional infliction of emotional distress, the use of hidden cameras by investigative reporters for TV networks, statistics on injury in the National Football League, and a defamation suit involving former Beatle George Harrison.

The CONCISE HORNBOOK ON TORTS explains the subject and makes it live without sacrificing the substance each student must master to succeed in the Torts course.

Available at Amazon Check Price Now!

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• Principles of Criminal Law (Concise Hornbook Series)
• Principles of Civil Procedure: Concise Handbook (Concise Hornbook)
• The Law of Torts: Examples & Explanations, Third Edition

Customer Reviews

could be useful for mid terms and finals – Andrew M. Blackburn – Knoxville, TN
I have only glanced at this book since I started my torts class. Torts isn’t very difficult but I will likely use this book to study for mid terms and finals

Great Supplement – Amber L. – California
As a first year law student, this book has helped me significantly. It breaks down potentially huge subjects into digestible parts that actually make sense. Probably not for use as a primary source, but excellent if you use it wisely!

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Mar 09, 2010 07:50:10

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Hypnosis is a common practice both on stage and in therapy. On stage shows, hypnosis is commonly portrayed as a form of mind control where groups of people are hypnotized and performed a series of actions as directed.

On the psychological front, hypnosis is used in a variety of methods. From helping patients to overcome fears, to eliminating unwanted habits such as smoking, drinking and overeating. Hypnosis has been applied in many different areas to bring about wanted desired results.

Hence, what is the Law of Attraction Hypnosis and its applications?

The Law of Attraction hypnosis is an integration of 2 effective goal reaching techniques. It is a combination of metaphysics and mind science principles.

The law of attraction is based on the premise, that if you focus on a goal, it can be achieved. Many athletes use this technique when training. They visualize what they want to have happen during the course of an event, and see themselves reaching their goal. Positive energy is placed around this pictured goal, drawing the wanted conclusion to the person. The basic idea centers on attracting desired outcomes to you, wish for it, picture it and it will become yours. There, are of course, many who doubt the effectiveness of this.

The law of attraction hypnosis brings the idea to a higher level. It integrates goal setting with hypnosis to give you a better and clearer picture of your desired outcome. With the hypnosis factor, it allows you to eliminate negative thought patterns that are detrimental to your future success.

Many people wish to bring about change in their lives; but do not really believe they deserve to have success. By using the law of attraction hypnosis, patients are brought to a level of relaxation that allows them to explore why they are blocking success from their lives. This can be because of an occurrence in childhood, where a person was told they would never be successful. It is that self-doubt that many have. By using the law of attraction hypnosis, these voices of doubt can be overcome.

The Law of Attraction hypnosis is all about eliminating that unnecessary struggle in life to allow us to get what we want faster with more ease. There’s no reason why we can’t get what we want when we know what we want and find out how to get it. After all, we live in a land of abundance!

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European Union Lawcards 6/e: Sixth Edition (Law Cards) Review

European Union Lawcards 6/e: Sixth Edition (Law Cards) Overview

Routledge-Cavendish Lawcards are your complete, pocket-sized guides to key examinable areas of the undergraduate law curriculum and the CPE/GDL. Their concise text, user-friendly layout and compact format make them an ideal revision aid. Helping you to identify, understand and commit to memory the salient points of each area of the law, shouldn’t you make Routledge-Cavendish Lawcards your essential revision companions?

Fully updated and revised with all the most important recent legal developments, Routledge-Cavendish Lawcards are now packed with even more features:

• New revision checklists help you to consolidate the key issues within each topic
• Colour coded highlighting really makes cases and legislation stand out
• New tables of cases and legislation make for easy reference
• Boxed case notes pick out the cases that are most likely to come up in exams
• More diagrams and flowcharts clarify and condense complex and important topics

“…these spiral-bound beauties…are an excellent starting point for any enthusiastic reviser. The books are concise and get right down to the nitty-gritty of each topic.”

Lex Magazine

Routledge-Cavendish Lawcards are now supported by a Companion Website at www.routledge.com/textbooks/xxx

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Women in Roman Law and Society (Midland Book) Review

Women in Roman Law and Society (Midland Book) Overview

The legal situation of the women of ancient Rome was extremely complex, and – since there was no sharp distinction between free woman, freedwoman and slave – the definition of their legal position is often heard. Basing her lively analysis on detailed study of literary and epigraphic material, Jane F. Gardner explores the provisions of the Roman laws as they related to women.
Dr Gardner describes the ways in which the laws affected women throughout their lives – in families, as daughters, wives and parents; as heiresses and testators; as owners and controllers of property; and as workers. She looks with particular attention at the ways in which the strict letter of the law came to be modified, softened, circumvented, and even changed, pointing out that the laws themselves tell us as much about the economic situation of women and the range of opportunities available to them outside the home.

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• Roman Women

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Mar 08, 2010 07:35:09

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Visitors to the United States require a non-immigrant visa, unless they fall under the Visa Waiver

Program or are exempt from the visa requirement under multinational agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). A non-immigrant visa is a physical entry document designed to authorize a certain activity for a specific, limited time. It can only be obtained at a US embassy or consulate outside the US, but can also be taken away by any US immigration officer if it is abused. The usual visa for a visitor is a B2 visa, which is issued for those traveling for pleasure or medical treatment. There are no quota restrictions on the visa, and it can be issued quickly in most countries. The expiration date on the visa designates the period of time in which a visitor can enter or re-enter the country, not the length of a stay itself. The length of a stay is determined on entry and recorded on the visitor’s I-94 card. Most visas allow for multiple entries, although some allow for only a single entry. A B2 visa does not permit one to work or operate a business in the US.

What to Expect When Applying for a Visitor’s Visa

Visiting the United States is a two-step process: applying for a visitor’s visa at a foreign consulate (preferably the applicant’s home consulate), and examination at the entry point of the US. Thus the visa does not guarantee entry to the United States; it is a “preliminary finding” of eligibility to enter as a visitor. A visa application requires documentation and probably an interview. Getting a visa requires proof to immigration authorities that you will leave at the end of the trip. A visitor also needs to demonstrate financial independence, or that there is someone who is willing to take financial responsibility for him or her. There is no way to appeal a refusal, but one can always reapply as many times as one wishes.

At the port of entry to the United States, immigration authorities have the authority to deny admission, or to determine the length of time for which the visitor is authorized to remain in the country, which is noted on a stamp on the visitor’s Record of Arrival-Departure. Immigration officials can bar an applicant from entering the United States for five years if they discover the applicant was guilty of a fraudulent misrepresentation such as traveling on a forged passport.

Qualifying to Visit

The main policy consideration that governs visitation is the concern that people may use it as a means of gaining entry to the US and then not leave. The presumption in law is that every applicant for a visitor visa has the immigrant intent to remain permanently in the US. A visitor must demonstrate that the purpose of the trip is for pleasure or medical treatment, and that he or she plans to remain only for a specific and limited period of time. The chances of success for a visitor increase if he or she has a residence outside of the US and other ties that will ensure an exit from the country at the end of the visit. Such ties might include ownership of real estate, a bank account, a letter from an employer referring to a job available on return, close family members remaining behind, or proof of registration for further studies at a school or university.

Time Limitations

Under a visitor’s visa with multiple entries, the number of trips that can be taken before the visa expires is not limited, but the length of each individual trip is. Tourists can usually stay for up to six months on any given visit.

Extending the Length of a Visit

As with visa applications, extensions for a visit will require certain documentation. There are two ways of extending the length of a visit: one can leave the country and return for another six months, or one can apply for an extension from within the US as long as the entrance to the US was not made on a visa waiver and the total stay will not exceed one year. Usually, a visitor cannot get an extension of more than six additional months. Extension applications are normally approved within two months and, if the application is filed on time, the visitor will be permitted to remain in the United States until a decision is reached, even if the authorized stay expires in the meantime. Unfortunately, appeals on a rejected extension application make little sense from a time and cost point of view and are therefore of little use.

Converting a Visit into a Permanent Stay

It is important for prospective visitors to keep in mind that a non-immigrant visa will not lead to US citizenship. It also cannot be legally used to live permanently in the US. Although a visit can be extended by leaving the country and returning for an additional six months, immigration authorities are likely to notice if this is done repeatedly. Having a visitor’s visa does not provide an advantage in a green card application, and applying for a green card after having entered the United States on a visitor’s visa can raise questions about the original visa application. Foreigners who already have a green card application in process and who wish to visit the US may find it difficult, due to the perception that they will not leave when their trip expires.

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Law, Politics, and Society Review

Law, Politics, and Society Overview

This text studies the inextricable links between law, society, and politics through an in-depth examination of the institutions for law-making in the United States, focusing on the function, structure, and participants in the process. The institutions-oriented approach focuses on contemporary coverage of the interrelationship between law and society, and includes discussion of controversial topics, such as the influence of race, class, gender, and corporate governance on the law. Law, Politics, and Society also looks at the theoretical and philosophical foundations of American law and provides comparative and international perspectives. Diversity is embedded into each chapter within the readings–drawn from a broad range of interdisciplinary sources such as sociology, history, and medicine–as well as in activities, which encourage discussion about law and race, national origin, gender, and class. In addition, excellent coverage of how the law has changed since September 11, 2001 helps students understand these complex relationships in a tangible way.

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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Mar 07, 2010 15:25:09

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