Intriguing probes into one state’s idiosyncratic laws.
Cavendish, a Florida lawyer, disassembles for clinical inspection some marked aspects of the state’s law, drawing out their good, bad or ugly philosophical underpinnings.
As a result of the 2000 Presidential election and the Schiavo end-of-life affair, Florida jurisprudence has caught the public eye. The five legal essays included here provide some lively insights into this arena. In the most encompassing selection, Cavendish explores the consequences of Florida having adopted English common-law as a foundation upon which to build subsequent judge-made law in the state–as well as the critical commonwealth role of the state Supreme Court when the legislature seeks to change laws. This body of state law, the author explains, has a profound impact on the everyday affairs of its citizens–more so than federal law, and more so than most other states. Three essays focus specifically on state laws–on the diagonal line of controlling authority (for a more unified jurisprudence), the eloquent rise and unfortunate fall of spoliation of evidence law and an attempt to clear away the destabilizing ambiguity of poor law phrasing. The last piece is a rigorous broadside of Miller vs. Gaskins, which includes what Cavendish considers the “most shameful sentence in the whole history of Florida law: There is no evil against which the policy of our laws is more pointedly directed than that of allowing slaves to have any other status than that of pure slavery.” The author righteously hauls the law over the coals, describing it as a bit of imperialist bigotry imported by a self-styled aristocracy. And still, though slavery may be history, “yet there are ever seedlings of imperialist influence in our midst.”
Intriguing probes into one state’s idiosyncratic laws.Pub Date: May 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-9789663-5-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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