Adversarial Legalism: The American Way of Law

by Robert A. Kagan

In the first edition of this groundbreaking book, Robert Kagan explained why America is much more adversarial--likely to rely on legal threats and lawsuits--than other economically advanced countries, with more prescriptive laws, more costly adjudications, and more severe penalties. This updated edition also addresses the rise of the conservative legal movement and anti-statism in the Republican party, which have put in sharp relief the virtues of adversarial legalism in its ability to empower citizens, lawyers, and judges to mount challenges to the arbitrary or unlawful exercise of government authority.



"This is a wonderful piece of work, richly detailed and beautifully written. It is the best, sanest, and most comprehensive evaluation and critique of the American way of law that I have seen. Every serious scholar concerned with justice and efficiency, and every policymaker who is serious about improving the American legal order, should read this trenchant and exciting book."
--Lawrence Friedman, Stanford University

"A tour de force. It is an elegantly written, consistently insightful analysis and critique of the American emphasis on litigation and punitive sanctions in the policy and administrative process."
--Charles R. Epp, Law and Society Review

Genres: Law, Nonfiction, Politics, History, American, The United States Of America, College

432 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2019

Reviews

[Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a topic about which I know very little, so take my rating with a grain of salt. but I think I learned a lot. at the end of the book it comments on how little we may know about other systems, and therefore take for granted the way ours operates, which was certainly true of me. really enjoyed the comparative aspect, learning about changes over time, and just learning in general about how things work.

[Jason Hagen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the subject is not exciting, it is interesting and important enough to make it worth reading. It did take me a long time simply because it is dense and fairly dry. However, it is not bogged down by highly technical details; instead, the examples have just enough fleshing out to point out the relevance to the discussion. If you are interested in a more detailed understanding of the effects of how the legal process works as a lay person, it's well worth the time.

[Tatiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐. I was supposed to read this two weeks ago for class...better late than never. Kagan really did give a thorough, fascinating examination of American adversarial legalism. I want to round up to 5 stars, but the afterword really rubbed me the wrong way, so I rounded down.

[Oli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adversarial Legalism is a method of policymaking, policy implementation, and dispute resolution by means of lawyer-dominated litigation.
Benefit: flexible and creative judiciaries, checks against official corruption and arbitrariness, protect individual rights, as deterrents to corporate heedlessness. Enhance capitalism and the system of government. (3)
Negative: inefficient, complex, costly, inequality, injustice, unpredictable, time consuming (4)
Two salient characteristics of adversarial legalism:
· formal legal contestation
· litigant activism
Two consequences:
· costliness
· legal uncertainty
The whole book provides examples of adversarial legalism, analyzing it from both its positive impacts and negative impacts on cases and different parties. It specifically discusses the role of adversarial legalism in criminal justice, civil justice, welfare, environmental and economic justice after the general introduction of adversarial legalism.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for my Law and Policy class. The book is starting to become a bit dated but I thought that it was interesting. It gives a good overview if you don't have a lot of background in law.

[Mills College Library]

347.73 K119 2001