Misreading law, misreading democracy / Victoria Nourse.

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2016.

259 pages ; 24 cm

"Hating Congress but loving Democracy is a national passion. For those who apply law, whether lawyers or judges, it is an oxymoronic luxury neither can afford. One of the dirty secrets of the legal academy is that it teaches almost nothing to lawyers about how law is made in Congress. The results of this ignorance can be perverse and anti-democratic. No lawyer would confuse a dissenting judicial opinion with a majority opinion, but somehow lawyers and judges in famous cases have unwittingly confused the meanings of legislative losers and winners. For those lawyers and judges who have declared that reverting to Congress's records is shameful and unconstitutional, this book provides a powerful antidote. Lawyers may hate Congress but Congress by another name is democracy, and without understanding how it works, lawyers will unwittingly find themselves participating in an interpretive endeavor that celebrates those who have lost over those who have won the legislative debate"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-245) and index.

STA

KF425 .N68 2016

English

9780674971417 hardback
0674971418 hardback