From Library Journal
This ambitious reference offers a broad understanding of American legal issues. Hall, president of Utah State University and a professor of history there, has edited or coedited 12 books, including two other "Oxford Companion" volumes. Many types of scholars, including historians, political scientists, and lawyers, have contributed the 486 alphabetically arranged entries. The entries consider how law, legal institutions, and court decisions are related to social demands and legal responses. The formal institutions in which the law operates receive significant attention, as do key legal issues, for example, civil rights and civil liberties. Entries such as "Technology and the Law," "Law and Literature," and "United States Obligations to the U.N." consider connective linkages concerning legal, social, and political systems. The volume also includes standard legal terms and key legal concepts, such as verdicts and venues, as well as biographical statements about leading individuals in the legal profession such as Judge Arthur T. Vanderbilt. A novel element in this work is its inclusion of broad essays on the history of law in the United States, which demonstrate how legal culture has changed across social eras. Other useful features are extensive cross referencing and the longer essays on key issues, such as abortion and reproductive decisions, criminal law principles, and consumer law. With a substantial breadth of information and analysis, this volume is accessible to every reader. All libraries will find it an invaluable reference source.Steven Puro, St. Louis Univ.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
This title bills itself as "a comprehensive guide to every aspect of law in America." Although that statement is hyperbole, this is perhaps the best one-volume encyclopedia of American law to be published in a long time. Editor Hall, president of Utah State University and a specialist in the history of law, has overseen another Oxford title--Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States (Oxford, 1992)--that will be a standard for many years. His group of contributors includes legal and historical scholars, faculty of law schools, judges, and legal writers.The book contains nearly 500 articles arranged in an A-Z format. Numerous see also references direct readers to similar topics in the book. Cross-references are denoted within the text for easy travel between articles. Individual cases of American law have, for the most part, been left out of the list of entry headings. There is an index to cases though; that leads readers to the article(s) where the case is discussed. A few extremely important or popular cases are included as entries (Brown v. Board of Education; Leopold and Loeb case; Simpson, O. J., trials of). The same is true for people--only well-known or important historical figures are given individual articles.Articles are generally several pages long and written at a level that is easily understood. Topics as arcane and confusing as intellectual property law and torts are explained with a minimum of legalese. With the ease of comprehension and the thorough main index, the volume is a good place for students to start school papers. College students will find the bibliography after each article useful in going further in their selected topics. Like law itself, the book is already out-of-date, as topics such as internment and privacy must be reconsidered after laws passed following the September 11, 2001, tragedy. However, this should not deter any library from purchasing this title. Readers will find a sometimes difficult topic covered in a simple, concise, and clear manner. RBB
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Book Description
A landmark in legal publishing, The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court is a now classic text many of whose entries are regularly cited by scholars as the definitive statement on any particular subject. In the tradition of that work, editor in chief Kermit L. Hall offers up The Oxford Companion to American Law, a one-volume, A-Z encyclopedia that covers topics ranging from aging and the law, wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping, the Salem Witch Trials and Plessy vs. Ferguson. The Companion takes as its starting point the insight that law is embedded in society, and that to understand American law one must necessarily ask questions about the relationship between it and the social order, now and in the past. The volume assumes that American law, in all its richness and complexity, cannot be understood in isolation, as simply the business of the Supreme Court, or as a list of common law doctrines. Hence, the volume takes seriously issues involving laws role in structuring decisions about governance, the significance of state and local law and legal institutions, and the place of American law in a comparative international perspective. Nearly 500 entries are included, written by over 300 expert contributors. Intended for the working lawyer or judge, the high school student working on a term paper, or the general adult reader interested in the topic, the Companion is the authoritative reference work on the subject of American law.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"We tend to think of the law as complex, something that only lawyers, judges, and legal educators can comprehend. Yet the history of the law can be viewed as a tale of human choices about the preservation of life, the protection of property, the exercise of individual liberty, the fashioning of creative knowledge, and other basic social concepts. The story of American law is writ in these choices, as well as in the formal institutions of bench and bar, the informal mechanics of dispute resolution, and the perspectives and approaches we take to the law." The Oxford Companion to American Law gives readers a comprehensive, authoritative, and accessible guide to this ongoing saga, in the form of 468 alphabetically arranged entries written by hundreds of respected scholars about a wide range of pertinent subjects. There are biographies exploring the personal and professional careers of the nation's important lawyers, judges, and legal educators, from Benjamin Cardozo to Daniel Webster. . . discussions of such central concepts as contracts, torts, property, and equity ... overviews of current controversies surrounding such matters as abortion and reproductive rights, affirmative action, and freedom of speech and the press... definitions and descriptions of such agents and institutions as bounty hunters, detectives, paralegals, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation... and summary consideration of important legal cases from Marbury v. Madison (1803) to Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) to Roe v. Wade (1973) to Bush v. Gore (2001).

SYNOPSIS

This handsomely bound volume contains 486 alphabetically arranged entries on a variety of influential people, underlying concepts, and important cases in American law. Aimed at scholars, legal professionals, and the general reader, the short essays discuss such topics as affirmative action, public defenders, professional ethics, criminal trial procedure, and the Dred Scott case. The volume features a case index in addition to the subject index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc.,Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal