November 23, 2011

The word "law" only appears once on the NYT list of "100 Notable Books of 2011."

Maybe the New York Times is missing some great law books, but this is some kind of read on something that ought to matter to legal academics and other law folk.

What's the one book? It's "Rights Gone Wrong/How Law Corrupts the Struggle for Equality," by Richard Thompson Ford. Here's the NYT review of it by Jeffrey Rosen:
In “Rights Gone Wrong,” Richard Thompson Ford, a law professor at Stanford, argues that both the progressive left and the colorblind right are guilty of the same error: defining discrimination too abstractly and condemning it too categorically, with similarly perverse results....

Ford does not offer an equivocal, cautious, middle-of-the-road critique of civil rights law....

Ford ends his stimulating polemic by arguing for a more “nuanced” approach to civil rights. He calls for the return of thoughtful, pragmatic judges who will take the time to distinguish justified from unjustified acts of discrimination, rejecting selfish or perverse claims of “rights gone wrong” while protecting people from truly invidious indignities.
Noted.

13 comments:

Crunchy Frog said...

By "nuanced" I assume he means, "make shit up on an ad hoc basis to get the result that fits my policy preferences."

Got it.

wv: piche

edutcher said...

Well, it was nuanced, so the Gray Lady just loved it.

Wince said...

But I've got a suitcase full of fifty-pound notes

And a half-naked woman with her tongue down my throat


I Feel So Good, by Richard Thompson (without the Ford)

I feel so good I'm going to break somebody's heart tonight.
I feel so good I'm going to take someone apart tonight.

They put me in jail for my deviant ways,
Two years, seven months, and sixteen days.
Now I'm back on the street in a purple haze

Chorus:
And I feel so good
I feel so good

I feel so good I'm going to break somebody's heart tonight.
I feel so good I'm going to make somebody's day tonight.
I feel so good I'm going to make somebody pay tonight.

I'm old enough to sin, but I'm too young to vote.
Society been dragging on the tail of my coat
But I've got a suitcase full of fifty-pound notes
And a half-naked woman with her tongue down my throat

They've made me pay for the things I've done.
Now it's my turn to have all the fun

I feel so good I'm going to break somebody's heart tonight.

David said...

How does a "polemic" end up with a "nuanced" suggestion?

Only from law professors. (Well, not only, but they are good at it.)

Chip S. said...

Making exactly the right decision in every instance yields better results than reliance on rules. No shit.

Figuring that out isn't hard. Implementation is pretty much impossible.

The only real policy choice we ever face is among imperfect rules.

Curious George said...

That will change when my new book "Xena: The Lucy Lawless Story" comes out. Because it's gonna have photos.

Oh, be sure to buy it off Althouse's Amazon link.

Roger J. said...

Anytime someone uses the ternm "nuanced" I think of John "lurch" Kerry- not a good choice of terms for me.

MadisonMan said...

How is it a bad thing that law is rarely in the list.

Paint Drying probably isn't either.

Rob said...

Sounds to me like he is looking for a country of men, not of laws.

"Nuanced" is code for "The decisions I would make."

Jose_K said...

1Q84. The worst book i have ever read from Murakami. ( In fact the only bad one)}
Canti, Schopenhauer in verse
Van Gogh? read the letters to Theo and the Diary By Gauguin . Best than movies or breaking news about him

Jose_K said...

Nuanced?
why not summum ius, summa injuria

Unknown said...

Siraj Al Islam said..........
At first i thank to you for this post....Sounds to me like he is looking for a country of men, not of laws.
"Nuanced" is code for "The decisions I would make.

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