Law 101: Everything You Need to Know About American Law

About this book

The first two editions of the best-selling Law 101 provided readers with a vividly written and indispensable portrait of our nations legal system. Now in this third edition Jay M. Feinman offers a fully updated survey of American law that incorporates fresh material on 2009 Supreme Court cases the legal response to the war on terror (including the Guantanamo detainees and electronic surveillance) and to the latest developments in Internet law. In a book brimming with legal puzzles interesting anecdotes and thought-provoking questions Jay M. Feinmans clear introduction to the law provides us with a solid understanding of the American legal tradition and covers the main subjects taught in the first year of law school. Readers are introduced to every aspect of the legal system from constitutional law and the litigation process to tort law contract law property law and criminal law. Feinman illuminates each discussion with many intriguing outrageous and infamous cases from the scalding coffee case that cost McDonalds half a million dollars to the sensational murder trial in Victorian London that led to the legal definition of insanity to the epochal decision in Marbury v. Madison that gave the Supreme Court the power to declare state and federal law unconstitutional. He broadens the readers legal vocabulary clarifying the meaning of everything from "due process" and "equal protection" in constitutional law to the distinction between "murder" and "manslaughter" in criminal law. Perhaps most important we learn that though the law is voluminous and complex it is accessible to all. Everyone who wants a better grasp of current legal issues--from students contemplating law school to journalists covering the legislature or the courts to fans of Court TV--will find here a wonderful source of information: a complete clear and colorful map of the American legal system.