Rate this book

How Judges Think (2008)

by Richard A. Posner(Favorite Author)

3.76 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0674028201 (ISBN13: 9780674028203)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Harvard University Press

review 1: I had read some of Richard Posner's How Judges Think in draft last year, but have resumed reading the book now that it has appeared. Every member of the United States Senate should read it, so that we might have meaningful confirmation hearings on federal judges. Our public discourse about what judges really do proceeds at an infantile level; Judge Posner's bracing book could help it grow up. His criticisms of the self-serving and often delusional rhetoric of current members of the U.S. Supreme Court is especially welcome. - Brian Leiter
review 2: I might be a bit more pre-disposed to the material than were I, say, an electrical engineer, hence that might have something to do with the rating. But he's a fantastic writer, the material is very articulate, and ye... moret straightforward. nutshell observations: Posner discusses at length the inherent limitation of textualism/originalism as a legal/constitutional theory in a non-civil law system (that is, our statutes are not comprehensive to provide for every conceivable situation, it is thus left to the judiciary to fill in the blanks, so to speak). He has always been a legal pragmatist, but he also highlights the weaknesses of other leading pragmatist's own arguments for their theories. Indirectly then, and maybe unintentionally (or intentionally), he postures himself as a leading voice of current legal pragmatism. Theories aside, this is a fantastic book for fresh/young lawyers, as it touches on judicial deliberation and the need to improve relations between the bench and bar and the bench and academy. As technical as these observations sound, maybe this is a bad sign, but I was engrossed. less

Download links for: How Judges Think

Advertising