Specific Areas of the Law
Students in their first year of law school may find value in Grant Gilmore’s classic The Death of Contract (2d. ed. 1995), which discusses the relationship between tort and contract.
Students interested in reading about criminal law might turn first to Susan Estrich’s Real Rape (1987), one of the most influential books about criminal law and reform ever written, or Hugo Adam Bedau’s The Death Penalty in America (3d. ed. 1997), a standard introduction to the field.
Students interested in civil rights generally, or in gay rights more specifically, may find value in Yale Law School professor William N. Eskridge Jr.’s Gaylaw: Challenging the Apartheid of the Closet (1999), an investigation of the treatment of sexual and gender variation in American law.
Students interested in environmental law might want to read Lewis and Clark’s own Michael C. Blumm’s Sacrificing the Salmon: A Legal and Policy History of the Decline of the Columbia Basin Salmon (2002).
Students interested in animal law should start with Cass Sunstein and Martha Nussbaum’s Animal Rights: Current Debates and New Directions (2004).
Students interested in corporate law should try Frank Easterbrook and Dan Fischel’s The Economic Structure of Corporate Law (1991), an excellent introduction to the theoretical underpinnings of the field.
Students interested in intellectual property and cyber-law may want to read Lawrence Lessig’s The Future of Ideas (2001).
