Law 101: Everything You Need to Know About the American Legal System

Rating:
Summary: A great resource
Review: Since I just recently reviewed Jay Feinman's excellent _Un-Making Law_, I may as well review this one too.

This book is a terrific resource, both for people in general who want to know how U.S. law works and for students headed to law school who want to jump-start their studies.

Basically, it's a user-friendly (but not oversimplified) introduction to the entire first-year law school curriculum. Feinman's claim is that the law isn't something mysterious that you have to belong to an esoteric priesthood in order to understand; on the contrary, it's possible for the ordinary layperson to understand what the law is and how it works.

His book bears out that claim. Heck, I wish _I'd_ had it to read before I started law school; he sets out the major concepts clearly and intelligibly, in the process touching on many of the key cases. I'd have had a _much_ better idea of what to expect during my first year if I'd read this first. (Nor would that have exhausted its usefulness. It would probably be handy to have around while, say, Putting Together The Big Picture for your state bar exam.)

Nor, of course, is it just for future lawyers. It's suitable for anyone who wants to know how the U.S. legal system works. ('Knowing how it works' here means 'understanding the principles and competing incentives that drive the development of U.S. law', not 'knowing how to act as your own lawyer'. This book isn't about 'how'; it's about 'why'. If you want to draft your own employee handbook or something, get a book from Nolo Press.)

You don't have to be of any particular political persuasion to profit from it, either. It's very fair and even-handed, carefully presenting both sides of every controversial issue.

In fact, just about the only people in the U.S. who may not get much out of it are practicing attorneys, who are already supposed to know all this stuff. And even there, it's just barely possible that . . . nahhhhh.

Rating:
Summary: Great introduction for the arm chair Lawyer.
Review: This book was a delight to read. It gives a clear review of most law procedures, and the true meaning of legal terms. It takes you through simplified ideas on how the law is applied so that it is readily understandable for someone with absolutely no knowledge of it. I highly recommend this book if you are in some type of litigation at the present. Although it is not a "how to" book, it will give you a better understanding of the court proceedings.

Rating:
Summary: Law 101
Review: This is THE one book that I wish I had read the summer before law school!

Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the Best Substantive "Pre-Law" Book Available
Review: This is the very best not-too-basic book about American Law I ever read. In Law 101 Rutgers Distinguished Professor of Law Jay Feinman takes his reader through the basic concepts and principles of most of the traditional first year law student subject areas. I actually purchased read this book in conjuction with my own first year of law school (as well as having read it again just now) and found it a fantastic place to get a "heads up" on each of the subject areas prior to studying them via the traditional case-method. If one had to chose one book to read prior to prior to law school, Law 101 would be a great choice.

One of the nice features of Feinman's approach is the loose Q-A format. Feinman poses a question and then spends a few pages answering each question. Even nicer is Feinman's ability to write simply and clearly, one of those things lawyers are trained to do now (as opposed to the esoteric jibber-jabber of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, that is, the era of the 200 word-20 comma sentence). Feinman also does an excellent job delving into a brief history of certain subject areas, most notably that of property - a subject area that few students enjoy studying but is actually quite fascinating in its feudalistic roots).

Also refreshing is Feiman's ability to detach himself fairly well from most of the more controversial aspects of certain areas of law (e.g., constitutional law), although I thought I could detect (or at the least suspect) certain biases - but certainly not to the point of detracting from the book's value or credibility, I should add. Regardless of whether you're thinking about law school or already have five years of practice under your belt, if you don't learn something new from reading this book then you probably ought to try reading it again. A clear must-read for the pre-law students out there, for sure.