Judges on Judging : Views from the Bench (Chatham House Studies in Political Thinking) - Softcover

David M. O'Brien

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1566430429 ISBN 13: 9781566430425

Publisher: Chatham House Pub, 1997

Synopsis

The views of leading justices and judges on the judicial process, the function of judging and the role of the courts, particularly the Supreme Court, are presented in this text. What judges say remains important for understanding the role of courts in American politics. Since off-the-bench commentaries provide insight into the governmental system, public policy and political principles, this collection of essays aims to further illuminate the American judicial process. There has been much debate over off-the-bench commentaries and some judges have been outspoken in their criticism of other political branches over such matters as the contemporary process of federal judicial selection, while others have attacked the more conservative directions taken in the 1990s by the Rehnquist court. This book intends to contribute to the on-going debate over off-the-bench commentaries. The topics addressed by justices and judges run from rather rare comments about specific decisions, to more frequent observations about the operation of the judiciary and the administration of justice.

About this title

About the Author

David M. O'Brien is the Leone Reaves and George W. Spicer Professor at the University of Virginia. Prior to teaching at the University of Virginia, he taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Puget Sound, where he was chairman of the Department of Politics. He served as a research associate in the Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Chief Justice and, in 1982-1983, as a judicial fellow at the Supreme Court. He also has been a visiting fellow at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York (1981-1982); has been a Fulbright lecturer in constitutional studies at Oxford University, England (1987-1988); has been a Fulbright researcher in Japan (1993-1994); has held the Fulbright Chair for Senior Scholars at the University of Bologna in Italy (1999); and was a visiting professor at Florida International University (2002) and at the Institut d'Etudes Politique, Universite Lumiere-Lyon II in Lyon, France (2006). Among his many books are Storm Center: The Supreme Court in American Politics, eleventh edition (2017), which won the American Bar Association's Silver Gavel Award; Constitutional Law and Politics: Struggles for Power and Governmental Accountability and Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, tenth edition, two volumes (2017); Animal Sacrifice and Religious Freedom: Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (2004); To Dream of Dreams: Religious Freedom and Constitutional Politics in Postwar Japan (1996); Supreme Court Watch, published annually since 1991; Congress Shall Make No Law: The First Amendment, Unprotected Expression, and the U.S. Supreme Court (2010); Judicial Roulette (1988); What Process Is Due? Courts and Science Policy Disputes (1987); The Public's Right to Know: The First Amendment and the Supreme Court (1981); and Privacy, Law, and Public Policy (1979). He has coauthored The Judicial Process: Law, Court and Judicial Politics (2015), Courts and Judicial Policymaking (2008) Government by the People (22nd ed. 2008), and Abortion and American Politics (1993); edited or coedited several books, including The Lanahan Readings on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, third edition (2010) and Judicial Independence in the Age of Democracy: Critical Perspectives from Around the World (2001); and contributed more than 100 articles and chapters in professional journals and books.

Review

"Judges on Judging is consistently rated by my students as their favorite book in my class. No other single volume provides them with such a clear and accessible sense of what judges do, what courts do, and the way judges think about their roles and their courts." -- Douglas Edlin "Judges on Judging is a comprehensive collection of essays with significant insights into the views of leading justices and judges on the judicial process, the dynamics of judicial interpretation, deliberation and decision-making, and the role of courts. O'Brien's text offers students an extraordinary inside look at justices' and judges' thinking, their characters, judicial philosophies, and views of the judiciary in society. It is a practical and accessible resource for anyone interested in law and courts." -- Karen L. Owen "Of the books I use in the Judicial Process course, my students consistently rate Judges on Judging as their favorite and most interesting. The articles delve deeply into the Court's role in a constitutional republic and frequently lead to active student classroom debate. I've used O'Brien's text for over a decade, and my students consistently come away with knowledge of the judiciary and its role in the American political system that is more sophisticated and nuanced." -- John Hermann "I've been using O'Brien's edited collection in my upper-division course on the U.S. Supreme Court since its first edition. As a supplement to a variety of other, more scholarly and journalist readings, O'Brien's collection gives a compelling voice to the justices. Students welcome (and appreciate) the opportunity to directly explore the thinking and perspective of the nation's leading jurists on virtually all the topics covered in the course, and the collection provides a productive foil to contemporary scholarship." -- Mark P. Petracca

About this edition

• Publisher: Chatham House Pub
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1566430429
• ISBN 13: 9781566430425
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 364