DECISION AT LAW

by David W. Peck ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

David attempts in this brilliant book the impossible task of presenting in a few hundred pages a general view of the American legal system: the legal process in action, the functions of the courts and the advocates, and their roles in the development of the law. His discussion of the DiCicco and Lumley cases clearly supports his high professional standing. But the materials he has chosen to illustrate the functioning of the legal system present some of the most troublesome questions in law: jurisdiction, conflicts, consideration, and legal remedies. The brief chapter devoted to contracts is unintelligible to the layman; it is too cursory to be of any great value to the expert. The author's discussion of confessions in criminal cases and of the necessity for the privilege against self-incrimination is timely in an era when the desires for national security has at times overshadowed individual liberty. But again the material chosen to present this controversy is complex: i.e., the rules of evidence. This book is well-written; the author's analysis of the decisional law is often brilliant. But one must question for whom it was written.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 0837194199

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dodd, Mead

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1961

Categories: NONFICTION