Legal Accents, Legal Borrowing: The International Problem-Solving Court Movement

(Paperback)

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Description

A wide variety of problem-solving courts have been developed in the United States and are now being adopted in countries around the world. This book finds that while importers often see themselves as adapting the American courts to suit local conditions, they may actually be taking in more aspects of American law and culture than they realize.

Reviews

"Nolan takes an ethnographic approach to the study of alternative courts to counter the idea that law can simply be transplanted, unchanged, from one environment to another... Nolan does an excellent job of exploring how culture affects legal borrowing, and his work is of considerable value both to scholars of comparative law and to judges, lawyers, and other practitioners who deal with legal change."--Choice "The scope of this work is truly impressive as Nolan makes multiple visits to England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, and Canada to examine more than 50 courts, conducting hundreds of interviews and observations. The result is a well-researched, well-told, well-analyzed, sometimes humorous account... As in his earlier work, Nolan brilliantly combines theory and empirical research... This book makes a tremendous contribution."--Rekha Mirchandani, Law & Society Review "[T]his is a necessary and useful book for readers who study problem-solving courts, especially those that track the development as well as the internalization of the movement surrounding the growth of these courts. Those interested in how law and culture can or cannot be successfully imported will also benefit from reading Legal Accents. Most specifically, critics of American cultural imperialism--regardless of interest in problem-solving courts--should read this book... For readers in all these categories, I definitely recommend Legal Accents as a must-read. For others, the book still belongs to the book shelf space containing ready references about noteworthy subjects."--Salmon A. Shomade, Law & Politics Book Review "Nolan's research is an unmatched contribution to the nascent field of knowledge concerning [problem-solving courts]... His rich court observations are coupled with fascinating data gleaned from interviews with judges and other court officials."--Dawn Moore, Punishment & Society

Author Bio

James L. Nolan, Jr., is professor of sociology at Williams College. He is the author of "Reinventing Justice: The American Drug Court Movement" (Princeton) and "The Therapeutic State: Justifying Government at Century's End".