Constitutional Law: Themes for the Constitution's Third Century

by Daniel A. Farber, Philip P. Frickey, William N. Eskridge Jr.

The authors have tried to provide some historical context for modern doctrine, and to give at least a brief treatment of less contentious areas of law. They also have tried to show students how these issues pervade constitutional law and to provide students with tools for more intense thinking. The authors start with Brown v. Board of Education and the historical litigation background of that case to generate greater initial enthusiasm in students.

Genres: Law

1256 pages, Hardcover

First published August 6, 2008

Reviews

[Edward · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read the first six chapters of this textbook for Stephen Gottlieb's Constitution law class at Albany Law School.

The text presents Constitutional Law in a very slanted and biased way. While it does a great job of summarizing methods of interpretation it really felt that while reading this book certain ways of thinking about cases were shoved into your mind. Law is not about coming to conclusions about one way to think about a case rather exploring the possible meanings of the case.

Further, the book makes little note about the politics behind all of these decisions. That would be helpful considering how complex, convoluted and arbitrary Constitutional Law seems at times.

Overall, parts of this textbook were helpful but most of the book was superfluous and aimed at getting students to think about the Constitution from one specific angle.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Actually really fond of this one. Maybe because I had a profoundly inspirational professor, but I think she actually chose an excellent text too. Very readable.