Law &amp; Legal

A Theory of Justice

by John Rawls

Gideon's Trumpet

by Anthony Lewis

Just Mercy

by Bryan Stevenson

Law & Legal Memoir & Biography

Making Your Case

by Antonin Scalia, Bryan A. Garner

One L

by Scott Turow

Law & Legal Memoir & Biography

Plain English for Lawyers

by Richard C. Wydick, Amy E. Sloan

Reading Law

by Antonin Scalia, Bryan A. Garner

Law & Legal

The Art of Cross-Examination

by Francis L. Wellman

The Brethren

by Bob Woodward, Scott Armstrong

The New Jim Crow

by Michelle Alexander

Gibson's Suits in Chancery

by Henry R. Gibson

The Common Law

by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

The Concept of Law

by H. L. A. Hart

The Federalist Papers

by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay

History Law & Legal

A Civil Action

by Jonathan Harr

The true story of the toxic waste case that pitted Massachusetts attorney Jan Schlichtmann against two of the country's largest corporations, W. R. Grace and Beatrice Foods. A National Book Critics Circle Award winner and the basis for the 1998 film starring John Travolta.

A Theory of Justice

by John Rawls

John Rawls's 1971 masterwork reframed political philosophy for the twentieth century. The "veil of ignorance" thought experiment — design the rules of society without knowing where you'll land in it — has become a standard tool in legal, political, and moral reasoning.

Gideon's Trumpet

by Anthony Lewis

The classic backstory of one of the most significant Supreme Court decisions in American history. In 1962, a penniless Florida prisoner named Clarence Earl Gideon sent a handwritten petition to the Supreme Court. The result, Gideon v. Wainwright, established the right to appointed counsel for criminal defendants who could not afford a lawyer.

Just Mercy

by Bryan Stevenson

Law & Legal Memoir & Biography History

Bryan Stevenson was a young lawyer when he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a legal practice dedicated to defending those most desperate and in need: the poor, the wrongly condemned, and women and children trapped in the farthest reaches of our criminal justice system. One of his first cases was Walter McMillian, a young man condemned to die for a notorious murder he didn't commit.

Making Your Case

by Antonin Scalia, Bryan A. Garner

Justice Antonin Scalia and legal-writing master Bryan Garner combined forces to write the practitioner's bible for appellate advocacy. Covers brief-writing, oral argument, dealing with the bench, and the rhetorical habits that distinguish the lawyers judges actually want to read.

One L

by Scott Turow

Law & Legal Memoir & Biography

An autobiographical account of Scott Turow's first year at Harvard Law School, where the brilliant and ambitious are systematically broken down and remade into lawyers. One L is the book every law student reads before — or during — their first year, and the one their spouses read to understand what happened to the person they married.

Plain English for Lawyers

by Richard C. Wydick, Amy E. Sloan

Richard Wydick's slim 1979 classic taught a generation of lawyers to stop writing like lawyers. Now updated by Amy Sloan, the sixth edition remains the most concise, practical guide to legal writing in print.

Reading Law

by Antonin Scalia, Bryan A. Garner

Justice Scalia and Bryan Garner present and explain 57 canons of legal interpretation — the rules judges use (or should use) to read statutes, contracts, and constitutions. The definitive textualist manifesto and reference.

Law & Legal

The Art of Cross-Examination

by Francis L. Wellman

First published in 1903 and continuously in print ever since, Francis Wellman's classic is the foundational text on cross-examination in Anglo-American trial practice. Wellman, a former New York prosecutor, collected the great cross-examinations of his era and analyzed what made them work.

The Brethren

by Bob Woodward, Scott Armstrong

Law & Legal History Memoir & Biography

Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong's 1979 inside account of the Burger Court was the first time anyone had successfully reported the Supreme Court from inside, using clerks, justices, and internal memoranda. The book is part of the canon of American legal journalism.

The New Jim Crow

by Michelle Alexander

Once in a great while a book comes along that changes the way we see the world and helps to fuel a nationwide social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book. Michelle Alexander argues that "we have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it."

Gibson's Suits in Chancery

by Henry R. Gibson

Henry R. Gibson's landmark 1891 treatise on Tennessee chancery procedure remains the definitive practitioner's guide to equity practice more than a century after its first publication. Covers jurisdiction, pleadings, process, evidence, decrees, appeals, and the full machinery of the chancery court.

The Common Law

by Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Law & Legal Philosophy History

Originally delivered as the Lowell Lectures in 1880 and published in 1881, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s The Common Law is the foundational work of American legal realism. Its opening sentence — "The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience" — is the most quoted line in American jurisprudence.

The Concept of Law

by H. L. A. Hart

H. L. A. Hart's seminal 1961 work introduced the "rule of recognition" and reshaped legal philosophy in the analytic tradition. Now in its third edition with a substantial introduction by Leslie Green and Hart's own famous Postscript responding to Dworkin.

The Federalist Papers

by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay