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This volume contributes to the growing field of comparative Jewish and American law, turning to Jewish law to provide insights into substantive and conceptual areas of the American legal system, particularly areas of American law that are complex, controversial, and unsettled.
List of contents
Introduction
Section One. The Comparative Study of Jewish Law and American Law: An Introduction
1. Teaching Jewish Law in American Law Schools: An Emerging Development in Law and Religion
2. Applying Jewish Legal Theory in the Context of American Law and Legal Scholarship: A Methodological Analysis
3. An Introduction to Interpretation in Jewish Law, with References to American Legal Theory
4. An Introduction to Legislation in Jewish Law, with References to the American Legal System
Section Two. Capital Punishment
5. Capital Punishment in Jewish Law and Its Application to the American Legal System: A Conceptual Overview
6. Playing God: An Essay on Law, Philosophy, and American Capital Punishment
Section Three. Self-Incrimination
7. An Introduction to Self-Incrimination in Jewish Law, with Application to the American Legal System: A Psychological and Philosophical Analysis
8. Miranda, Dickerson, and Jewish Legal Theory: The Constitutional Rule in a Comparative Analytical Framework
Section Four. Constitutional Theory
9. Unenumerated Constitutional Rights and Unenumerated Biblical Obligations: A Preliminary Study in Comparative Hermeneutics
10. Rules and Standards in Jewish Law and American Constitutional Law
11. Of Inkblots and Omnisignificance: Conceptualizing Secondary and Symbolic Functions of the Ninth Amendment in a Comparative Hermeneutic Framework
Section Five. Legal Practice
12. Reflections on the Practice of Law as a Religious Calling from a Perspective of Jewish Law and Ethics
13. A Look at American Legal Practice through a Perspective of Jewish Law, Ethics, and Tradition: A Conceptual Overview
14. Taking Ethics Codes Seriously: Broad Ethics Provisions and Unenumerated Ethical Obligations in a Comparative Hermeneutic Framework
15. Taking Prosecutorial Ethics Seriously: A Consideration of the Prosecutor's Ethical Obligation to “Seek Justice” in a Comparative Analytical Framework
16. Taking Ethical Obligations Seriously: A Look at American Codes of Professional Responsibility through a Perspective of Jewish Law and Ethics
Index
About the author
Samuel J. Levine is Professor of Law and Director of the Jewish Law Institute at Touro Law Center. He has also served as the Beznos Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University College of Law, and he has taught at the law schools at Bar-Ilan, Fordham, Pepperdine, and St. John’s Universities.
Summary
This volume contributes to the growing field of comparative Jewish and American law, presenting twenty-six essays characterized by a number of distinct features. The essays will appeal to legal scholars and, at the same time, will be accessible and of interest to a more general audience of intellectually curious readers.
Additional text
“Levine’s work as a whole is laudable for the way in which he takes up the comparative task. … Levine’s essays are fully accessible to readers who have no prior knowledge of Jewish law, yet he also does not attempt to translate complex terms into comparative American language or modes of thought that would obscure the complexity of the ideas behind them. … The book is well worth having on the bookshelf of anyone who wants to think about what we can learn from Jewish law, the ethos of Jewish life, or religious legal systems generally, that make our study of our own secular legal systems and culture more incisive and critical.”
—Marie A. Failinger, Mitchell Hamline School of Law, Touro Law Review
