Customer Reviews

Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies (Aspen's Introduction to Law Series)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A central problem with teaching law by the casebook method is that most students also need a clear, expert roadmap of how the cases fit together, and how a particular doctrine that emerges from a line of cases -- sometimes over a century or more -- has evolved, changed, and operates today. Outlines of the black letter law (e.g. Gilberts) aren't as useful for something doctrinal like con law. You want clear exposition in prose. You want concise descriptions of all the important cases and what they stand for. You want Chemerinsky.

All con law students should be grateful that one of the nation's leading Constitutional practitioners and professors has written this book. Its size is intimidating, but that's because it covers far more territory than the typical intro con law class. It's so well-done, though, that it's something serious students and lawyers will want on their bookshelves long after the first year -- as a supplement for advanced-topics classes, and as an essential reference work.

The book is well-organized in an outline format with headings and subheads, so you can easily follow the thread of complex doctrine over time, like the Commerce Clause, or across its varied applications, like Equal Protection. Chapters are thorough but well divided. The organization allows you to find exactly what you need and to zero in on a particular narrow point or case, or to read more expansively about a doctrine's development, change, and varied application. Chemerinsky's prose is neutral, straightforward, always clear. He's analytical but doesn't make arguments. You couldn't say his writing has personality, but it is quite readable.

This book is the con law supplement of choice at my school (Michigan). No one I know has regretted buying it.

This is probably the best money I spent my first year of law school. I am still using this book for Con Law II in my second year of school, and it is still just as invaluable to me. For Constitutional Law, canned briefs like legal lines do you no good. You need someone to spell out the principles and the analysis. No one does this as well as Chemerinsky. I could probably name at least 10 other students at school who ordered this book after they saw my copy. My text book for Constitutional Law is a piece of crap, and I would not learn anything if it were not for Chemerinsky. I have a different teacher for my second semester of Con Law, and he teaches verbatim from this book. My first Con Law professor was so impressed from a comment I made in class through something I had read in Chemerinsky that she came up to me after class and thanked me for helping further the class discussion. She was so impressed that I didn't want to tell her I was a fraud! I credit my final grade for Con Law I to Chemerinsky as well.

I know the price for this study aide is a little higher than some of the others, but you will get to use it for at least two semesters. I also heard it is helpful if you take a class on the First Amendment.

Other study aides I bought were barely opened. This one was read more than my text book!

(I never bother to write reviews. That is how pleased I am with how much this book helped me.)

My Con Law prof is using Sullivan's "Constitutional Law" (14th Ed., University Casebook Series) as our textbook, and our entire class is overwhelmed by both the concepts and the density of the reading (it takes four hours to read 25 pages!).

Then I picked up this book by Chemerinksy, which recommended by our professor. It's /amazing/. We're working on the dormant commerce clause, and Chemerinsky sets out everything incredibly clearly, citing cases (rather than including the entire case itself) and setting out black letter law in an explanation of the Court's rulings. Everything is much easier to understand, and it's much easier to pick out the important issues in the textbook when I read the next assignment. I recommend reading Chemerinsky first, and the textbook second, so the rules pop out at you more readily.

Chemerinsky has done a fine job of connecting the dots and making the ever-evolvong doctrines of American Constitutional jurisprudence understandable. The major weakness with most Con law books is that in focusing on individual cases, the student will often embroil himself or herself in the minutiae of individual cases while losing sight of the bigger picture. The glaring weakness of most commercial outlines is that the pendulum swings too far in the other direction; instead of focuing on individual cases, outlines give the bigger picture without providing enough context and specific information to truly inform the reader. That being said, Chemerinsky has found the perfect balance and his work suffers from neither of the aforementioned flaws. In the words of Goldilocks, Chemerinsky's treatment of Constitutional law is "just right."

Prof. Chemerisnky classifies the subject matter in this book according to general topics that any Con law student will recognize as the subject matter of a general Con law course. Yet, instead of of just providing a distilled outline analysis, Chemerinsky details a case-by-case analysis under each general topical heading and describes the major points and importance of the cases in a few paragraphs. Prof. Chemerinsky's case descriptions and analysis is extremely helpful and highlightss the most important and vital doctrines of the cases as it relates to the general topic being covered. These descriptions serve as a helpful supplement whne actually reading the cases themselves. Moreover, Chemerinsky masterfully ties all the applicable cases together and provides his own enlightening summary of how all the case law interacts so that the reader can understand where the law stands, and where the contours and lines have been drawn. Finally, Chemerinsky does a fine job of providing neutral and non-partisan analysis that focuses on the state of the law, and not intellectual prose arguing where he thinks the law should be. I would highly recommend this book to any Con Law student (as a great way to study and prepare for an exam), and to any general reader who desires to gain a deeper and more nuanced understanding of Constitutional jurisprudence.

I knew this was a good supplement when I read the section detailing US v. Nixon in the executive powers chapter and then my prof's lecture the next day was almost identical. I wondered if she was reading this book too. There is plenty of good explanations on the historical trends of the commerce clause, judicial powers, executive powers, the most important amendements, and many more.

The only section lacking is in the executive detention powers because a couple of cases have come up since 2002 with regard to the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, this is the only content that this book is lacking. This con-law supplement is more up to date and accurate than most others I've seen.

I can say that this book is very detailed, it has an independent discussion on each significant constitutional case as well as topical discussions and explanations of the political history leading up to and in between the cases.

Highly recommended for any constitutional law class!

This is one of five books that I think every law student should read, the other four being Joseph Glannon's Civil Procedure, Marvin Chirelstein's Contracts, Eugene Volokh's Academic Legal Writing, and Bryan Gardner's Elements of Legal Style (or the Winning Brief).

While it lacks the humor of Glannon, the incisive legal analysis of Chirelstein, the comprehensiveness of Volokh and the pragmatic skills teaching of Gardner, it is just as indispensible for amalgamating the complicated and arcane case lineages in Constitutional law into an easy to understand framework. And it is readable, unlike so many of its ilk. Perhaps most importantly, you don't have to feel embarrassed about raising a question that you came across in this book with one of your professors. (Naming no names: Gilberts.)

Get it. It's Glannon for Con Law.

I have only the highest praise for Prof. Chemerinsky's Con Law book. Constitutional Law may be the most difficult and abstract course in law school, and this is partially due to casebook treatment of the subject. In Con Law, the philosophical differences between Supreme Court justices are a clear influence on the case holdings. Since philosophical trends change as the Court changes, this force produces theoretical undercurrents which are not adequately covered in the casebook. This book dramatically reduces ambiguities in holdings and treatments by offering good discussion of these philosophical currents within the Court as a supplement to the legal concepts (with historical and political perspective added as well).

One specific example is Chapter 4 - limits of the executive power. With much of the furor over unchecked presidential authority (e.g., Guantanamo) as an important legal, moral and political question for our times, the book presciently points out that the Supreme Court has largely given the President wide latitude to conduct foreign affairs, and that future intervention is unlikely under the doctrine of "political question." To the extent that President Bush states that he has the power to do such things (and I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing here), the book provides some framework for evaluating his claim to power in this very nebulous area. Although this book did not specifically address the Due Process or Geneva Convention questions in that discussion (which formed the basis of the recent ruling against the administration), the book provides a very good broad framework for legal analysis, whether you agree or disagree with the political and moral implications.

The book seems very good at "connecting the dots" and broadening the discussion beyond individual cases. Well done.

There aren't many times when I think that a particular supplement is "vital" to understanding a course, but this is one such case. While I cannot say that I've seen every other supplement (of course), I don't see a reason to look further than this one.

If you are at all confused during an introductory Constitutional Law course, you need this book. It boils down constitutional theory and doctrine into easily digested concepts. It is a bit long, but it is worth the read, and often can be read in lieu of the actual cases.... but I don't recommend this approach. It is a bit outdated, but I'm sure Chemerinsky will put out a new edition soon. Even if he doesn't, get this book anyway.

In my mind there is only one thing to add to the reviews that have been posted- this book should be read and re-read by law students and lawyers until they have a fundamental understanding of important constitutional law principles, not only a vague recollection from one or two law school classes. I believe it is the responsibility of lawyers to know constitutional law well and to be a resource for the community in interpretering it to lay people. Whatever specialty a lawyer winds up practicing, constitutional law occupies a special place for a citizen-lawyer and the lawyer should take this charge seriously. Recent events have highlighted this point in questions of separation of powers, Article II and the limits of executive power. A lawyer should be able to provide a thorough explanation of these and other constitutional issues to a non-lawyer. This book, more than any other in the area of constitutional law, prepares the practicing lawyer to do just that. It does not have an ideological emphasis or overarching point of view such as professor Tribe's book but questions Court reasoning in case decisions based on legal principles and inconsistencies in court application of the "tests" it has devised. In this fashion it engages the reader to question results and to think through the problem on his or her own. Unfortunately because of the case method approach used in almost all law schools there are too few texts of this caliber in law.

I love this book!!! It's really good with the Chermerinsky con law book. It goes through the same cases and uses some of the same language. I really recommend this book.