Welcome to Litsy!

This is not a pleasant story; rising star criminal defence barrister Tessa is assaulted and has to decide whether to take her turn on the other side of the bar table, as victim and witness. I was completely hooked; if I have any criticism it‘s that the odd element felt overdone or heavy handed; a little formulaic in novel format perhaps. I am a sucker for the apparent glamour of the barrister/courtroom life and this was excellent on that.

Oona Hathaway is Professor of International Law and Political Science at Yale and Scott Shapiro is Professor of Law and Philosophy at Yale. This is a thorough and engaging look at the legal framework underpinning war as a means of dispute resolution and how the Grotius view of “might is right” was overturned with the 1928 Paris Peace Pact, which changed attitudes to the legitimacy of war and formed the basis of the modern international order.

Apparently it‘s “terrorism” to expect due process for all? Fun fact! As a #longtimefed I had a passing acquaintance with Seb G when he worked for an organization downstairs from my office. He struck me as a bit grumpy and kinda “out there.” He has some books in the Litsy database, but I‘m not going to highlight them in any way.

This is such an interesting book. It starts out as memoir of Yale law professor Kenji Yoshino‘s younger days as he processed his “otherness” in American society as a Japanese-American, gay man. He talks about covering—attempting to act as white and straight as possible—then goes into related legal issues. There‘s a gentleness to his writing and some of the legalities are more important than ever in our current moment.

Why SO-SO? Because Sutton is a judge & he writes like a judge 😂. It seems directed at law students-which I am not, unless you count self-education-instead of laymen, & he glosses over the racism behind forced sterilization.

His basic premise is that often your State Supreme Court may be a more viable option than THE Supreme Court.

Learned a lot, though. Like how Jehovah‘s Witnesses played a huge part in our free speech/expression debates.

If we hold fast to grammar and the idea that grammar rules have never changed and therefore original intent and meaning can be deduced through written text, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Maine become unconstitutional and cease to exist in modern America. Just think about that for a minute.
#CeceliaWatson #Semicolon #law #grammar #punctuation #WestVirginia #Kentucky #Maine #WTF

When you have your next 18 books picked and so many more to add to the list! #somanybooks #solittletime #toread

💐 Tulips! Love them! 🌷
💐 💐 Nora Roberts' The Garden Trilogy

@TheSpineView #Two4Tuesday

This was amazing, I listened on #audio and it contained recordings from Ruth Bader Ginsberg herself, as well as chapters read by the fantastic Linda Lavin. I learned a bit, remembered some special moments, and mourned for both the person and the American hero that she was. So blessed to share a birthday with her!