Shop top categories that ship internationally
Buy new:
$44.99
$12.81 delivery
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$44.99
FREE International Returns
No Import Fees Deposit & $12.81 Shipping to France Details

Shipping & Fee Details

Price $44.99
AmazonGlobal Shipping $12.81
Estimated Import Fees Deposit $0.00
Total $57.80

$12.81 delivery
Usually ships within 2 to 3 days
$$44.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$44.99
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
Returnable until Jan 31, 2025
Returnable until Jan 31, 2025
For the 2024 holiday season, eligible items purchased between November 1 and December 31, 2024 can be returned until January 31, 2025.
Read full return policy
Returns
Returnable until Jan 31, 2025
For the 2024 holiday season, eligible items purchased between November 1 and December 31, 2024 can be returned until January 31, 2025.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$15.00
FREE International Returns
Delivery Friday, December 13. Order within 21 hrs 40 mins
Or fastest delivery Monday, December 9
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$44.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$44.99
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Added to

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Paul Campos
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Jurismania: The Madness of American Law

by Paul F. Campos (Author)
3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars 11 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$44.99","priceAmount":44.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"44","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"nzwA5qA9IlTaZCvOVN46b1mPE7xPWwrNAl2rAi%2BuHcePc8WgoXj6QYYxBv2k6v6w67xuMVtDNalhCZYTPNFz%2BGkFbHhMgGo%2FoFTBmWxUX%2FJNC2ydpmTlFyKlpHussADVbRGjFWVrTU0%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$15.00","priceAmount":15.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"15","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"nzwA5qA9IlTaZCvOVN46b1mPE7xPWwrNs4OzA3B6ItQl3M%2FFS7vvV%2Fpic%2Bqv5LzBIH%2B0sgPu7PrlXvFHzMz2HrLO1wleKuCDjhtHiEcnASenNFIxayi207%2B%2B20%2BxafX9rjRevWxGzbTCB0FoHM%2BzERROmBdi9QEs690Yv0m1PcZbp766YQyve9E%2FjlkYMXey","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

In Jurismania, Paul Campos asserts that our legal system is beginning to exhibit symptoms of serious mental illness. Trials and appeals that stretch out for years and cost millions, 100 page appellate court opinions, 1,000 page statutes before which even lawyers tremble with fear, and a public that grows more litigious every day all testify to a judicial overkill that borders on obsessive-compulsive disorder. Campos locates the source of such madness, paradoxically, in our worship of reason and the resulting belief that all problems are amenable to legal solutions. In insightful discussions of a wide range of cases, from NCAA regulations of student-athletes to the Simpson trial, from our most intractable social disputes over abortion and physician-assisted suicide to the war on drugs and the increasingly fastidious attempts to regulate behavior in public spaces, Campos shows that the mania for more law exacerbates the very problems it seeks to remedy. In his final chapter, the author calls instead for a humbling recognition of the limits of reason and a much more modest role for our legal system.
Clearly written and laced with a delicious wit, Jurismania gives us a CAT-scan of the American legal mind at work. It reveals not only that the patient is even worse off than we imagined, but also clarifies the many reasons why.
Previous slide of product details
  1. ISBN-10
    0195130839
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0195130836
  3. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  4. Publication date
    July 15, 1999
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    5.27 x 0.41 x 7.96 inches
  7. Print length
    208 pages
  8. See all details
Next slide of product details
Books%20with%20Buzz
Books with Buzz
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The breadth of Campos' work is astounding. He derives insights from such disparate sources as the codes of behavior regulating everything from the National Collegiate Athletic Association to his local library in demonstrating the absurd applications of legal thinking in American life.... His book is a work of serious scholarship, but Campos' writing is never dry."--The Denver Post

"[An] acerbic analysis....A pointed, well-argued polemic."--Booklist

Book Description

A lacerating and lively critique of America's bloated legal system that reveals the folly of our addiction to law

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press (July 15, 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0195130839
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0195130836
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1520L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.27 x 0.41 x 7.96 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.3 3.3 out of 5 stars 11 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Paul Campos

Paul Campos

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Paul Campos is a Professor of Law at the University of Colorado. In addition to his numerous academic publications, he is a widely published journalist, who writes a weekly column for Salon.com. His work also appears regularly in Newsweek/The Daily Beast, and in The New Republic. Campos’s blog “Lawyers, Guns, and Money,” where he co-blogs with five other academics, is one of the top 100 political blogs on the internet, as measured by site traffic. In August of 2011 Campos began another blog, “Inside the Law School Scam,” which in the first year of its existence hosted nearly two million visits. In January of 2012 Above the Law named Campos its Lawyer of the Year.

His books include DON'T GO TO LAW SCHOOL (UNLESS), THE OBESITY MYTH, JURISMANIA, and AGAINST THE LAW (with Steven Smith and Pierre Schlag).

Customer reviews

3.3 out of 5 stars
11 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

D. Modes
4.0 out of 5 stars Eloquent plea for legal modesty
Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2003
This is a stimulating, well-written critique of legal compulsiveness and over-formalism. It will be welcome to
those who (like me) have been influenced at least somewhat by the Realist idea that law is about choices and not about mechanically following rules as though sets of rules were wholly autonomous or self- executing. Although the book does tend to get a bit flighty to the end in its exposition of the author's broader philosophic themes, in the main it's a sensible explanation of why we're always going to disagree about the law and a reasoned plea for recognizing society's "ethical pluralism" (though I think he goes a bit far on the theme as applied to slavery debates in the 19th Century). Well written and stimulating.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Brett Jones
1.0 out of 5 stars YIKES! Is this guy really a lawyer?
Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2001
What a bunch of trite nonsense. Save yourself the (the price) and watch the OReilly factor or listen to Rush Limbaugh if you only have a radio. They both have more depth. (...) My bird loves it though.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
R. D. Mackenzie
2.0 out of 5 stars Shallow Rant
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2016
Wildly imaginative and frankly a dull and shallow protest against American legality. Don't waste your time. He tries to sound brilliant but falls flat with no credible references or research to back his notions.
Helpful
 Report
Jonathan Rauch
5.0 out of 5 stars A merciless and incisive analysis of American law
Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2000
Campos is polemical, wicked, funny--all of that. But this is a smart and serious book. It does not argue that all law is madness, or that all lawyers are mad. It argues that enough is enough, and too much is too much, and America has way, way too much. America has made a fetish of legal procedure, continuing to unwind legal red tape and generate numberless rules and hurdles long past the point where procedure does or can serve any rational purpose. Campos's method is rigorous enough to deserve the attention of lawyers who would prefer to dismiss him, and his style is vigorous enough to make him a good read on the bus. Not to be missed.
15 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Borgehan Koksal
4.0 out of 5 stars legalize everything!
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2001
Smart and very interesting work by Campos. The questions posed by the book are not exactly related to the law. The questions are about the American society. Law addicted American society creates more laws to settle all their disputes including their interpersonal relationships. On the other hand, the author states that more law is not the answer to solve their problems. Basically, Campos shows us the effects of law in our daily lives and how our lives are dominated by law. First of all, he knows how to criticize American law because he questions law obsessive American culture that causes to a law fed up society. An obsessive-compulsive disorder in the American culture results with the assumption that all disputes can be resolved through the use of reason in this case legislation. The Jurismania helps with simplifying many issues about the contemporary American legal system. I recommend this book for those who like the law too much.
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
John C.
1.0 out of 5 stars Boy was this book bad!
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2001
To be honest, I couldn't get through it. It was that BAD! The arguements in this book were so poorly thought out that the reader is left with no idea of what the hell was going on. Buy this book only if you have money to waiste and you can't find anyone else to give it to.
Helpful
 Report
Anna J. Taylor
2.0 out of 5 stars Juris-ranting
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2005
On the plus side, Paul Campos will make you think about the way our legal system works. On the whole I found I disagreed with many of his conclusions.

Campos illustrates many of the American legal system's flaws. However, the biting sarcasm undermines his best points, and then there are the points that seem to get twisted up and abstracted to the point of distraction.

Case in point: He opens with a lovely breakdown of a small section of the NCAA rules. The absurdities are duly noted and a discussion of the possible motives underlying the extra language. He can't spare derision from his tone as he anaylizes the results.

Later he treats us to a very cursory treatment of the War on Drugs. I thought there would be a lot of room to apply some of the ideas he was making in this specific arena, but he limits his assessment to the political declaration of the War on Drugs. Without much specifics he waves us to a couple of past historical events, and summarizes that the politicians should have been laughed off the stage. I didn't find his statements any more convincing than the political speechmaking that launched the war...so...

His legal discussions hold up better (in my eyes) than his straight philosophy sections. I read the book without being persuaded by the core of his critique. While it caused me to think, in the end I discounted most of his arguments.
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
GRW
5.0 out of 5 stars Shameful attacks by people who never read the book...
Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2001
(...) As to the book itself, while I agree with some legitimate criticism that it is somewhat verbose, I nonetheless found it a fairly easy read, thanks to Campos's wit and his frequent sports analogies and anecdotes.
I will admit I am somewhat critical of the legal system and so may have approached this book with less than objective point of view. Nevertheless, I found Jurismania an excellent and thought provoking work. I would like to add enjoyable, but I suffered too frequent lapses of moral outrage at some of the tales to really say I "enjoyed" reading the book.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report