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JUSTICE VS. LAW

Name: JUSTICE VS. LAW
Author: Eugene W. Hickok
ISBN: 0-02-920529-8

COURTS AND POLITICS IN AMERICAN SOCIETY

by Eugene W. Hickok & Gary L. McDowell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 5, 1993

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A powerful and profound ``look into the nature and extent of judicial power under a written constitution of limited powers.'' Hickok (Law/Dickinson College) and McDowell (Visiting Scholar/Harvard Law School; Curbing the Courts, 1988, etc.—not reviewed) see modern federal litigation as a tool used by ideologically motivated litigants ``to supplant the status quo with new visions of the just society.'' Thus, federal courts have departed from their role as neutral arbiters of specific cases and controversies and have become ``places where abstract legal theories are pushed by this side and that.'' The authors begin by analyzing a 1989 Supreme Court case, DeShaney v. Winnebago County, in which the Court held that state social workers had no duty under federal statutory or constitutional law to protect a five-year-old from a brutally abusive father. Arguing compellingly that the DeShaney result was correct, the authors use the Court's steadfast and restrained adherence to law in the face of poignantly tragic facts as a device to make their central assertion: Courts exist not ``to exercise compassion in the name of justice'' or even to achieve just results, but simply to apply legal rules neutrally- -even when, as in DeShaney, the result offends conscience. Finally, Hickok and McDowell contend that the advent of government by the judiciary, abdication of Congressional responsibility, and the increasing litigiousness of society have vitiated popular government and diminished the democratic significance of citizenship. Conservative in the tradition of Bickel and Frankfurter, and echoing some of the arguments in Robert Bork's The Tempting of America (1990) and Walter K. Olson's The Litigation Explosion (1991). Hickok and McDowell won't convince believers in an activist judiciary, but they do make clear the dangers to democracy posed by rule by judicial decree.

Pub Date: Oct. 5, 1993

ISBN: 0-02-920529-8

Page Count: 300

Publisher: Free Press

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.