Books

Explore the rich intellectual contributions of our distinguished faculty. This collection showcases a diverse range of legal scholarship. Discover new insights, challenge your thinking, and expand your knowledge.

Printing is not supported at the primary Gallery Thumbnail page. Please first navigate to a specific Image before printing.

Illinois Criminal Procedure

Hugh Mundy

This unique publication provides a detailed examination of criminal practice and procedure in Illinois, focusing on the constitutional issues—both federal and state—that arise in criminal cases. "Illinois Criminal Procedure" has been thoroughly updated to reflect new legislation and recent decisions from both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Illinois Supreme Court. This edition includes enhanced discussions on topics such as eavesdropping, the Apprendi decision, guilty pleas, appeals, and post-trial and post-sentencing motions. Additionally, it addresses recent developments, including defense motions for DNA testing.
Critical and Comparative Rhetoric: Unmasking Privilege and Power in Law and Legal Advocacy to Achieve Truth, Justice, and Equity

Elizabeth Berenguer, Lucy Jewel, and Teri A. McMurtry-Chubb

The book explores how alternative communication approaches can reshape legal meanings and outcomes to promote inclusivity, equity, and justice, using comparative and critical rhetoric. By challenging traditional norms rooted in White and Euro-centric perspectives, it introduces new rhetorical models derived from diasporic and non-Western cultures. It encourages readers to rethink their understanding of logic and rhetoric, advocating for innovative knowledge-building methods that can address and heal the law's existing structures, which often sustain privilege and power dynamics.
Eyewitness Testimony: Strategies and Tactics

Michael P. Seng and William K. Carroll

The evidence from the literature is unequivocal in that jurors place significant weight on eyewitness testimony despite its frequent inaccuracy and unreliability. Eyewitness Testimony: Strategies and Tactics offers insights into the perception process, helping to identify potential inadvertent mistakes. It also anticipates the likely direction of errors and provides suggestions for effectively presenting this information to a jury. The book offers practical advice for managing mistaken eyewitnesses at each stage of the legal process, from pretrial proceedings to closing arguments.
Introduction to Transactional Lawyering Practice

Alicia Alvarez and Paul R. Tremblay

The book delves into various aspects of transactional practice, including essential skills like interviewing and negotiation, ethical considerations, challenges of remote work, community engagement, and relevant substantive law topics. It aims to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to excel in transactional settings.
Introduction to Employee Benefits Law

Kathryn J. Kennedy

This book serves as an introduction to employee benefits law. With the passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the field of employee benefits law has expanded considerably. ERISA made both labor and tax law changes, mostly applicable to qualified retirement benefit plans. The book's primary focus highlights the qualification requirements of the Internal Revenue Code applicable to retirement benefit plans. However, the book does discuss the ERISA provisions that apply to both retirement benefit plans and welfare benefit plans.
Race Unequals: Overseer Contracts, White Masculinities, and the Formation of Managerial Identity in the Plantation Economy

Teri A. McMurtry-Chubb

By examining employment contracts between plantation owners and overseers, and the broader legal and social framework of the antebellum South, this book challenges the monolithic image of the White male identity of the era. It reveals how, while race granted White men access to land and enslaved labor, the wealthiest among them employed contracts, public laws, and plantation management strategies to restrict the upward mobility of overseers, the nation's first managerial class. As overseers navigated the complex legal and social landscape of their employment contracts, they forged a unique form of White masculinity tied to their managerial role. This managerial identity, shaped by the demands of plantation labor and the constraints of White supremacy, has left a lasting legacy, potentially influencing the power dynamics and inequities of modern workplaces.
Readings in Restorative Justice

Michael P. Seng, Sheila Murphy, and Allison Trendle

This book presents a collection of essays demonstrating the application of restorative justice in resolving disputes related to criminal and civil matters, civil rights issues, and other conflicts both nationally and internationally. Each essay is accompanied by thought-provoking discussion questions.

Individuals invested in societal improvement will find value in reading this book. The essays are primarily intended for use in college and university courses within disciplines such as sociology, political science, public health, psychology, and criminal justice. Additionally, law students, who are the future custodians of justice, will find this book beneficial. It will also be particularly useful for civic and religious groups seeking to explore solutions to community issues, spanning public safety, public health, education, civil rights, immigration, and environmental concerns.
Commercial Leasing: A Transactional Primer

Daniel B. Bogart, Celeste M. Hammond, and Tanya Marsh

This book is the first among legal textbooks to examine a crucial component of real property practice: commercial lease law. Commercial leasing is the lifeblood of commercial real property development in the United States. Real property lawyers regularly represent landlords, tenants, and lenders in the leasing of commercial space. This is true in periods of booming real estate development and periods of economic downturn. Leasing practice is transactional and centers on a single negotiated document—the commercial lease. By the end of a course based on this book, students will have developed a genuine understanding of the commercial office lease's major terms, the parties' goals and objectives to the transaction, and the skills crucial to effective representation.
Eyes on the Prize: Procedures and Strategies for Collecting Money Judgments and Shielding Assets

Jason J. Kilborn

This concise handbook is a modern roadmap to civil procedure, focusing on the often-overlooked process of collecting or defending against the collection of money judgments. It guides law students, new practitioners, and interested readers through key aspects such as domestication of judgments, debtor discovery, asset seizure, property liens, exemptions, fraudulent conveyance recovery, and bankruptcy.
Modern Real Estate Finance and Land Transfer: A Transactional Approach

Steven W. Bender, Celeste M. Hammond, and Robert N. Zinman

Modern Real Estate Finance and Land Transfer provides a clear overview of legal, business, and tax issues in real estate transactions for both commercial and residential contexts. With a focus on real-world applications, students learn the principles of law and mutual consent through examples and problem-solving. The text is suitable for both introductory and advanced courses, organized thematically and chronologically to address Real Estate Sales and Finance while following the lending cycle. Engaging questions help students develop essential skills for the competitive legal landscape.
Employee Benefits Law: Qualification and ERISA Requirements

Kathryn J. Kennedy

Section I of this book examines the specific qualification requirements of the tax code applicable to employee retirement plans from both the employer and employee perspective. Section II examines specialized employee benefit plans (such as 401(k) plans and welfare benefit plans) and the ERISA rules governing employee benefit plans in general.
Ranking and Priority of Creditors

Dennis Faber, Neils Vermunt, Jason J. Kilborn, Tomas Richter, and Ignacio Tirado

The most detailed comparative work on the priority of creditors is presented in a country-by-country format, offering an in-depth discussion of existing insolvency laws and practices across various jurisdictions. This comprehensive analysis facilitates the legal import of new concepts and best practices, enhancing the understanding of insolvency frameworks. The work is authored by a team of leading international scholars and practitioners in the field of insolvency law, ensuring a high level of expertise and insight.
Translating the Social World for Law

Elizabeth Mertz, William Ford, and Gregory Matoesian

This book examines the communication gap between legal and social science fields. It provides linguistic tools to foster interdisciplinary research and aims to train a new generation of legal scholars capable of addressing complex social issues.
Restorative Justice in Practice: A Holistic Approach

Michael P. Seng and Sheila Murphy

This compilation of essays delves into the multifaceted applications of restorative justice within the legal domain and beyond. The essays highlight the dynamic nature of restorative justice, demonstrating how its interpretation can vary based on the needs of the individuals and the community involved. They emphasize that restorative justice extends beyond criminal law and corrections, permeating various spheres of life and law, such as civil disputes, civil rights, interpersonal relationships, personal development, and self-awareness. Consequently, the essays cover a wide array of topics including housing discrimination, family conflicts, the war on drugs, the death penalty, juvenile courts, law school education, torture, immigration, clergy sexual abuse, international conflicts, yoga, and self-healing. The book not only encourages reflection but also advocates for proactive measures.
Careers in Health Law

Lawrence Singer and Megan Bess

The field of health law is constantly evolving alongside changes in the industry, leading to new issues that affect legal practice. Today, health lawyers are not doing the same work they were doing a year or even six months ago. The nature of the field is highly dynamic, with clients regularly presenting new issues that require legal advice. This constantly changing environment can be advantageous for attorneys, as they can quickly develop expertise in new areas of health law that are unfamiliar to everyone.
Treatment of Contracts in Insolvency

Dennis Faber, Neils Vermunt, Jason J. Kilborn, and Kathleen van der Linde

This book is the second installment in the Oxford International and Comparative Insolvency Law Series, focusing on how insolvency law impacts contractual obligations and relationships. It includes national reports from twenty economically developed countries, allowing for easy comparisons across jurisdictions. The work is aimed at commercial lawyers, providing authoritative guidance on the implications of insolvency for contracts, including issues related to performance and counterparty rights. It also examines pre-insolvency contractual remedies and restitution claims, as well as balancing competing interests in insolvency situations. The book's quality and uniformity of detail make it a valuable resource for practitioners and scholars due to the significant international differences in contract treatment.
Understanding Products Liability Law

Bruce L. Ottley, Rogelio A. Lasso, and Terrence F. Kiely

This comprehensive treatise is a valuable resource for products liability cases, offering an overview of the complex caselaw and statutes that have evolved over the past century. Part I outlines the foundational theories of warranty, misrepresentation, negligence, and strict liability, while also examining key product defects—design, manufacturing, and failure to warn—as well as challenges in proving defects and causation. It concludes with an exploration of available defenses and potential damages for plaintiffs. Part II focuses on practical issues in litigating products liability cases, including case research, drafting complaints, discovery processes, and evidence management.
Best of ABI 2011: The Year in Consumer Bankruptcy

Alane A. Becket, Jason J. Kilborn, and Robert G. Richardson

The text describes a collection of articles from ABI Journal and papers from ABI's educational seminars, focusing on consumer bankruptcy in 2011. It covers various topics such as means testing, Supreme Court case analyses, chapter 13 plans, litigation related to the foreclosure crisis, and issues concerning secured creditors.
Commencement of Insolvency Proceedings

Dennis Faber, Niels Vermunt, Jason J. Kilborn, and Tomas Richter

The text introduces the first volume of the Oxford International and Comparative Insolvency Law Series, which focuses on a comparative analysis of insolvency proceedings and domestic insolvency laws in developed and emerging economies. This volume specifically examines the commencement of insolvency proceedings for business debtors, detailing the types of proceedings, involved participants, and the impact on various stakeholders. Its uniform treatment of topics aids practitioners in understanding foreign legal systems while providing access to previously inaccessible materials. The book covers major legal families and is unique in offering a comprehensive analysis of domestic insolvency laws related to the opening of proceedings in different countries.
Louisiana Security Devices, A Précis

Jason J. Kilborn

This book provides a clear and up-to-date discussion of the four primary "security devices" in Louisiana law: the Louisiana version of Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, mortgages, statutory liens ("privileges"), and personal guarantees ("suretyship"). Written for easy accessibility to non-experts, it offers both basic introductions and detailed explanations of each device's operation, including complex rules for determining priority among them, particularly in relation to bankruptcy trustees and the Internal Revenue Service. Designed to help students and lawyers navigate difficult problems with ease, the book features a logically structured table of contents and simple illustrations of complex topics, ultimately reducing study and research time for secured transactions and boosting confidence in tackling Louisiana's distinct commercial law issues. The second edition includes updates reflecting recent legal changes, particularly regarding agricultural collateral, filing rules for Orleans Parish, and expanded application of certificate of title perfection rules for certain boats and motors.