Jefferson Professors Publish New Textbooks
Thomas Jefferson School of Law Professors continue to be prolific authors, writing important new books to critical acclaim.
The papers presented at the International Forum: Diversity, Equality and Integration at the Flemish Royal Academy of Belgium at the end of September have been assembled into a book. Thomas Jefferson Professor Susan Bisom-Rapp was one of the presenters and her chapter is on
workplace diversity and integration in the U.S. She also co-authored the Conclusion with Roger Blanpain, the host of the conference and one of her co-authors on the textbook “The Global Workplace.”
“This book is a fascinating compilation not only of the papers presented,” said Professor Bisom-Rapp, “but also of the extensive dialog at the forum.” A section of the publication transcribes the questions and commentary from the over 20 participants at the event. “That section,” noted Bisom-Rapp, “captures the lively debate that unfolded in Brussels.”
The citation for Professor Bisom-Rapp’s contributions is:
Diversity, Equality and Integration: A Workplace Perspective from the U.S; Conclusion, in DIVERSITY, EQUALITY AND INTEGRATION: BEYOND THE LAW – A COMPARATIVE STUDY (Roger Blanpain, ed, Vanden Broele Publishers, forthcoming 2008) (chapter authored alone; Conclusion co-authored with Roger Blanpain).
Professor Susan Bisom-Rapp co-authored a chapter in the anthology Sex Discrimination in the Workplace: Multidisciplinary Perspectives (Faye J. Crosby, Margaret S. Stockdale & S. Ann Ropp, eds. Blackwell 2007), and released in June.
Her chapter, A Critical Look at Organizational Responses to and
Remedies for Sex Discrimination, was co-authored with psychologists Faye Crosby and Peggy Stockdale, the above-mentioned editors of the anthology. In it, they discuss the types of workplace policies associated with working women making progress professionally.
“I very much enjoyed being part of the project,” said Professor Bisom-Rapp.
A review by Janice M. Steil in Sex Roles: A Journal of Research can be viewed by clicking on the link below:
Review of Sex Discrimination in the Workplace: Multidisciplinary Perspectives
Thomas Jefferson Professor Julie Greenberg authored a chapter titled “International Legal Developments Protecting the Autonomy Rights of Sexual Minorities: Who Should Determine the Appropriate Treatment for an Intersex Infant?” in the recently published book Ethics and Intersex.
Read a review of Ethics and Intersex in the New England Journal of Medicine
Professor Marjorie Cohn has published her latest book, Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law.
The publisher, PoliPointPress, says: “Cowboy Republic describes the six most important ways the Bush Administration has weakened the rule of law. Marjorie Cohn explains what we can do to remedy the administration’s breaches of statutory, constitutional, and international law including political and legal remedies.”
Professor Geoffrey Stone, former Dean of University of Chicago Law School, calls Cowboy Republic “an important cautionary tale about the perils that can befall a democracy when the arrogance of power outstrips the reasoned constraints of the law.”
Political activist Daniel Ellsberg says, “This devastating, utterly compelling account of the crimes and usurpations of the Bush administration will convince all but the perpetrators themselves of the urgent need not only for investigations and prompt impeachments, but also for criminal prosecutions.”
Professor Aaron Schwabach’s latest book, Intellectual Property, was released in May 2007.
Intellectual Property examines all sides of current controversies and crises in this fast-changing field, particularly those resulting from the digital information revolution. Because ideas are not constrained by national borders, the author focuses on intellectual property, including trade secrets, as an international phenomenon, emphasizing the experiences and contributions of a wide variety of countries and cultures. An essential resource for students and researchers—and anyone else who needs to know how to use and/or protect intellectual property.
Professors Eric Mitnick and Susan Bisom-Rapp have both recently completed groundbreaking texts in their respective subjects. Professor Aaron Schwabach has published three important books – one on environmental legal issues and the other on the internet and the law. A third book Intellectual Property has just published this May. Professor Richard Scott has also released a supplement to his 2006 book on business law in the European Union.
Professor Mitnick’s book Rights, Groups and Self-Invention: Group-Differentiated Rights in Liberal Theory, is the first law book to examine conflict between group-differentiated rights and the individual right to self-invention.
What groups do you belong to in society? What special rights do you have because you are a member? Who decides your individual or group identity in society? Are your individual choices being denied or limited because of your membership in a specific group? These are among the questions that Rights, Groups, and Self Invention: Group-Differentiated Rights in Liberal Theory examines.
The work explores the complex subject of group-differentiated rights, or simply, the rights an individual has because of membership in a social or cultural group. Mitnick examines how these rights constitute aspects of members’ social identities, and whether this is cause for concern when examined through the prism of liberal theory.
“In its basic form,” says Professor Mitnick, “liberal theory is a theory about freedom, and part of that freedom is the individual right to self-invention. A core value of liberalism is the notion that being human means being free to construct your own identity.”
With The Global Workplace, Professor Susan Bisom-Rapp and her four co-
authors created the first comprehensive law text on international and comparative employment law – and along with it – a new survey course. The book, which covers the national workplace laws of nine countries and examines labor and employment law regulation by the International Labor Organization and, under NAFTA, the European Union and Corporate Codes of Conduct, fills a significant gap in the existing law school curriculum.
Professor Bisom-Rapp worked with an international team of co-authors to create the text; Roger Blanpain, Professor at the Universities of Hasselt, Leuven, (Belgium) and Tilburg (The Netherlands); William R. Corbett, Frank L. Marist Professor of Law, Paul M. Herbert Law Center of Louisiana State University; Hilary K. Josephs, Professor of Law, College of Law, Syracuse University and Michael J. Zimmer, Professor of Law, Seton Hall University.
“Interest in the transnational aspects of workplace law has grown as labor and employment lawyers increasingly encounter issues implicating the laws of other countries,” says Professor Bisom-Rapp. “Yet, until the publication of The Global Workplace, there has been no text available for law professors interested in presenting this complex and theoretically engaging subject to their students.”
Professor Aaron Schwabach published Internet and the Law: Technology, Society and Compromises in late 2005.
According to the publisher, “As information technology grows and the Internet's global reach strengthens, it is becoming more difficult to define rules to regulate it. Governments have tried, for various reasons, to restrict Internet content but have not succeeded, in part because the international nature of the Internet makes enforcement difficult. Internet and the Law focuses on laws relating to intellectual property and freedom of expression, and presents information in a clear and concise manner, making it easily accessible to students and others researching the intricacies of Internet law.”
Also in late 2005, Professor Schwabach published International Environmental Disputes:
A Reference Handbook
The book offers an intensive investigation of past and present achievements and failures in international environmental law, according to the publisher.
”Global warming. Species extinction. Over consumption of resources. Loss of biodiversity. Underground aquifer contamination. Overgrazing. Environmental problems are plaguing our planet. If left unchecked, they can cause enormous harm. Can the nations of the world join together to conquer them before it's too late?
International Environmental Disputes is a thought-provoking examination of 
the world's most pressing environmental problems and the attempts to remedy them through international law. From the dumping of ash in the Danube and the disposal of waste in western Africa to the effects of the Everglades sugar industry, the work explores such topics as the role of the United Nations, the debate over sustainable development, environmental ethics, bio-piracy, and radioactive material in space satellites.
The book covers issues such as treaties on the ozone layer, global climate change, and the Kyoto protocol. A chapter devoted to the United States discusses the international environmental impact of its economy. Biographical sketches introduce readers to a diverse cast of characters including a New Guinea tribal elder and a Japanese TV personality.”
Early in 2007, Thomas Jefferson Professor Richard Scott and three co-authors published The Law of the European Union, Vol. 2: Economic Law and Common Policies. It is a supplement to the original volume of the same name, published in 2005.
Professor Scott’s co-authors are Prof. Alain Levsseur of the LSU Law School, Prof. Arnoud Raynourd of Toulouse University, and Prof. Melchior Wathelet of University de Louvain-La-Neuve et Liege and former Judge at the European Court of Justice.
It was favorably reviewed in the Revue des Droits de la Concurrence (I-2007) by Prof. Jean-Yves Cherot of the University Paul Cezanne, Aix-Marseille.