Scan the list of books published by NYU Law faculty members during the past year, and you’ll see the range of audiences they write for: casebooks for law students on topics from intellectual property to estate and gift taxation; handbooks for practitioners on criminal justice and equal rights litigation; and texts for the broader public, such as Professor of Practice Bob Bauer’s reflections on democracy.
Their works engage with pressing issues and new legal developments. A book edited by Professor of Clinical Law César Rodríguez-Garavito looks at whether entities in nature beyond just humans should also be accorded legal rights. And as befits a school committed to a global perspective on legal education, the sweep of topics is international. A volume edited by Mattias Kumm, for example, surveys foundational texts on constitutional democracy from South Africa to Haiti to Korea. John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law Philip Alston published International Human Rights: Text and Materials.
That work by Alston adds to the number of open-access texts authored by Law School faculty and available at no cost under a Creative Commons license. It joins freely downloadable casebooks on antitrust, copyright, and trademark—the latter, by John M. Desmarais Professor of Intellectual Property Law Barton Beebe is already in its 11th edition and has been used at more than 80 law schools.
A roundup of the books that full-time faculty members published in 2024 is below. Book descriptions are excerpted from publishers’ websites.
General and Academic Titles
Philip Alston ed., The Complexity of Human Rights: From Vernacularization to Quantification (Bloomsbury Publishing)
“This book provides the first systematic assessment from a human rights law perspective of the landmark contributions of the renowned legal anthropologist, Sally Engle Merry.… Merry and her colleagues transformed human rights thinking by highlighting the process of ‘vernacularization,’ which sees rights discourse as being unavoidably dependent upon translation and interpretation. She also warned of the pitfalls of excessive reliance upon statistical and other indicators, through the process of quantification.”
José E. Alvarez and Judith Bauder, Women's Property Rights Under CEDAW (Oxford University Press)
“For over 40 years, the leading international treaty body on women’s rights, the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (the CEDAW Committee), has been generating jurisprudence interpreting CEDAW’s obligations that states protect the equal rights of women in relationships; family rights, including inheritance; rights to land, adequate housing, financial credit, social benefits, intellectual property, and other economic rights.… The book finds that CEDAW's vision of what it means for women to have equal rights to property is dramatically different from what many scholars consider to be the leading source of “the international law of property,” namely the case law generated on behalf of foreign investors’ property under the international investment regime.”
Bob Bauer, The Unraveling: Reflections on Politics Without Ethics and Democracy in Crisis (Rowman & Littlefield)
“Part memoir, part rumination on the declining moral compass of the American political class, The Unraveling is the first book to place restoring political ethics at the center of the renewal of American democracy. Politics is a brutal game, but Bauer asks where does the line fall between the “hardball” of politics and attacks on the very foundation of democracy? Looking back on 46 years in the political arena, Bauer tries to better grasp what has gone wrong and to understand what shaped his own decisions and actions.”
Mattias Kumm et al. eds., Global Canons in an Age of Contestation: Debating Foundational Texts of Constitutional Democracy (Oxford University Press)
“[T]his book asks which are—or should be—the canonical texts of comparative constitutionalism. The theoretical scope of the contributions is broad and ambitious, selecting primary material from beyond the existing textbooks to engage the concept of a canon. This framework provides significant insights about inclusion and exclusion, and proposes candidates for canonical and anti-canonical materials.”
Cheryl Milne and Sophia Moreau eds., Litigating Equality, (LexisNexis Canada)
“Litigating Equality is a valuable resource for legal practitioners and scholars interested in current issues relating to equality rights litigation in Canada. A follow-up to a previous volume, Public Interest Litigation in Canada, this book builds on its themes and takes a deeper dive into equality rights advocacy.”
Melissa Murray and Andrew Weissmann, The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents With Commentary (W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.)
“Collecting the four unprecedented indictments against Donald Trump, this essential volume features extensive commentary by NYU law professors and MSNBC contributors Melissa Murray and Andrew Weissmann.”
Richard Pildes et al. eds, Electoral Reform in the United States: Proposals for Combating Polarization and Extremism (Lynne Rienner Publishers)
“In the midst of the political ugliness that has become part of our everyday reality, are there steps that can be taken to counter polarization and extremism—practical steps that are acceptable across the political spectrum? To answer that question, starting from the premise that the way our political processes are designed inevitably creates incentives for certain styles of politics and candidates, the Task Force on American Electoral Reform spent two years exploring alternative ideas for reforming key aspects of the US electoral process. The results of their work are presented in this essential book.”
César Rodríguez-Garavito ed., More Than Human Rights: An Ecology of Law, Thought and Narrative for Earthly Flourishing (NYU Law Moth Project)
“This book includes contributions from leading lawyers, scientists, philosophers, and writers from around the world who participated in the inaugural gathering of the More-Than-Human Rights (MOTH) project.… Building on the invitation of Indigenous knowledge and ecological sciences to expand our sensorial and moral horizon and see ourselves again as part of Earth’s web of life, the provocation of this book is to locate rights in the more-than-human world.”
Joseph H. H. Weiler, Israel and the Creation of a Palestinian State: A European Perspective (Routledge) (Note: First published in 1985, this edition contains a new preface by the author.)
“The underlying theme [of this book] focuses on the limitations of the purely national context as a framework for resolving the current political problems of the Israeli-Palestinian dilemma.”
Joseph H. H. Weiler et al. eds, Law and Revolution, Past Experiences, Future Challenges (Routledge)
“A hundred years ago, the founding dean of a newly established law faculty [the University of Ljubljana Faculty of Law in Slovenia] beginning its mission amid the ashes of the First World War and the disintegration of the only remaining European empire gave an opening lecture exploring the role of law and judges in the face of revolutionary societal changes. Drawing upon that important text, this edited volume explores similar challenges for law brought about by various disruptive realities. [These include]: dealing with the law and revolution in 1918,…the effects of globalization and…the recent disruptive reality of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Foreign Language Titles
Franco Ferrari et al. eds, Reconocimiento Y Ejecución De Laudos Arbitrales Extranjeros (Marcial Pons, Argentina)
Franco Ferrari et al. eds., Münchener Kommentar zum Handelsgesetzbuch Bd. 6: Bankvertragsrecht, Recht des Zahlungsverkehrs, Kapitalmarkt- und Wertpapiergeschäft, Ottawa-Übereinkommen über Internationales Factoring (C.H. Beck 5th ed, Germany)
Casebooks, Textbooks, Supplements, and Reference Works
Barry E. Adler, Anthony J. Casey, and Edward R. Morrison, Baird and Jackson's Bankruptcy: Cases, Problems, and Materials (Foundation Press 6th ed.)
Philip Alston, International Human Rights: Text and Materials (Open Access)
Anthony G. Amsterdam and Randy Hertz, Trial Manual 9 for the Defense of Criminal Cases (American Law Institute)
Barton Beebe, Trademark Law: An Open-Access Casebook (Open Access, Version 11)
Stephen J. Choi and A.C. Pritchard, Securities Regulation: Cases and Analysis (West Academic Press 6th ed.)
Stephen J. Choi and A.C. Pritchard, Securities Regulation: Statutory Supplement, 2024 Edition (West Academic Press)
Paul Craig and Gráinne De Búrca, EU Law: Texts, Cases, and Materials (Oxford University Press 8th ed.)
Paul Craig and Gráinne De Búrca, EU Law: Texts, Cases, and Materials (Oxford University Press 8th ed. UK Version)
Harry T. Edwards and Anne Deng, Federal Standards of Review (uscourts.gov 2024 update)
Richard A. Epstein and Catherine M. Sharkey, Cases and Materials on Torts (Aspen Publishing 13th ed.)
Eleanor M. Fox, Daniel A. Crane and Sean P. Sullivan, Cases and Materials on U.S. Antitrust in Global Context (West Academic Press 5th ed.)
Daniel Francis and Christopher Jon Sprigman, Antitrust: Principles, Cases, and Materials (Open Access 2d ed.)
Jack H. Friedenthal, Arthur R. Miller, John E. Sexton, Helen Hershkoff, Adam N. Steinman and Troy A. McKenzie, 2024–2025 Civil Procedure Supplement for Use with All Pleading and Procedure Casebooks (West Academic Publishing)
Jeanne C. Fromer and Christopher Jon Sprigman, Copyright Law: Cases and Materials (Open Access Version 6)
Stephen Gillers, Regulation of Lawyers: Problems of Law and Ethics (Aspen Publishing 13th ed.)
Posted December 12, 2024