Summary of Jay M. Feinman's Law 101

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Americans are fascinated by the law. And why not. The law is important, intellectually challenging, and sometimes outrageous. Consider some cases that have made front-page news: Stella Liebeck, who bought a cup of coffee at McDonald’s and spilled it on herself, was awarded $2. 7 million in damages.

#2 The law has pervaded our society from the beginning. It is difficult for most people to learn about the law, but they can learn something about it by taking Law 101.

#3 The first year of law school is the universal training ground for lawyers. While law students and lawyers all understand the same law in principle, they understand it in different ways. Law is not in the books, but in the interactions of judges, lawyers, and ordinary citizens.

#4 Law is not secret. It is a reflection of life, and life is complicated. Therefore, legal problems defy simple solutions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822524903

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights on Jay M. Feinman's Law 101

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Americans are fascinated by the law. And why not. The law is important, intellectually challenging, and sometimes outrageous. Consider some cases that have made front-page news: Stella Liebeck, who bought a cup of coffee at McDonald’s and spilled it on herself, was awarded $2. 7 million in damages.

#2

The law has pervaded our society from the beginning. It is difficult for most people to learn about the law, but they can learn something about it by taking Law 101.

#3

The first year of law school is the universal training ground for lawyers. While law students and lawyers all understand the same law in principle, they understand it in different ways. Law is not in the books, but in the interactions of judges, lawyers, and ordinary citizens.

#4

Law is not secret. It is a reflection of life, and life is complicated. Therefore, legal problems defy simple solutions.

#5

Law is a battlefield of political conflict. The complex questions the law deals with are the stuff of political controversy. Everyone can see this in major constitutional issues like abortion, but it applies to all other legal issues as well.

#6

This book strips away the mystery of the law to allow the nonlawyer to understand the rules of law and the principles and conflicts that are behind them. It doesn’t teach you how to be your own lawyer, but it does explain the big issues that are fundamental to law.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

Everything the government does is bounded by the Constitution. Constitutional law defines the relations between the president and Congress and between the federal government and the states, and it regulates the government’s ability to assess taxes, to build highways, to maintain and deploy the armed forces, and to print stamps.

#2

Constitutional law is the most complex of all the bodies of law in the United States. It is the interpretation and application of the U. S. Constitution. It is superior to every other body of law in that it defines and limits government powers.

#3

The process of applying constitutional law is extremely difficult because of the many different situations the text must cover. The text may be extremely broad and vague, but the cases that it covers are extremely diverse, so we must figure out what the text means and what result follows from it in a particular case.

#4

The United States has a federal constitution, which defines the structure and authority of the national government. Each state has its own constitution, which defines the structure of the state government. The state constitutions are generally much longer and more detailed than the federal Constitution.

#5

The length of state constitutions is largely due to the fact that they are limited in their authority by the state’s general authority to govern. They also often contain provisions that are not particularly constitutional in the sense of being directives about fundamental issues of rights or government organization.

#6

The new judicial federalism is the surge of interest in state constitutional law. State courts have applied these rights to strike down damage caps in personal injury cases as a violation of the right of access to the courts, to require developing municipalities to provide low- and moderate-income housing, and to compel the state to provide special funding for poor urban school districts.

#7

There has been a lot of debate over whether there is a state constitutional right to same-sex marriage, and the most controversial cases address this issue.

#8

The purpose of constitutional law is to organize the government and protect civil liberties. It is not necessary, though, as other nations manage to have a democratic political system and abundant civil liberties without it.

#9

The U. S. Supreme Court is the forum that can resolve the debate authoritatively on important issues. The Court is not non-political, but it operates at a greater distance from immediate political influence than other branches of government because its judges have a limited function and serve for life.

#10

The Dred Scott case illustrates the limits of constitutional law. The Supreme Court could not resolve the slavery issue through constitutional adjudication, and instead inflamed the passions that led to war just a few years later.

#11

The debate about race has been carried out with the use of these constitutional principles. Defining equal protection of the laws