The Judges
A Penetrating Exploration of American Courts and of the New Decisions--Hard Decisions--They Must Make for a New Millennium
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
Our courts, the third branch of the government, are central in the administration of our democracy. But their operations are shrouded in a mythology with its ritual incantations of "rule of law," "equal justice" and "presumption of innocence"--one that this book pierces.
We have 30,000 judges. Many are hard-working and distinguished jurists; most are simply lawyers who knew a politician. It does not help that the job pays poorly. We have no judicial profession: we do not train judges before or after they mount the bench.
There is no national court system. Fifty sovereign states, a federal government, counties and municipalities and state and federal agencies all have their own courts, their own rules and not infrequently their own laws and are deluged with cases filed by a million lawyers. Today, less than 3% of criminal charges and 4% of civil disputes are resolved by court trials.
The noted author argues that a specialized world demands specialized courts and judges expert in the subjects they must consider. Following the leadership of Chief Judge Judith Kaye of New York's highest court, the Conference of Chief Justices from all fifty states has endorsed her use of "problem-solving courts" to take the judiciary into the twenty-first century.
The Judges is Martin Mayer's most important book from many successful titles dating from the 1950s. It opens up a debate that will occupy scholars, justices, many of the one million lawyers in our country, and law school professors and students for years to come.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mayer believes our court system is shrouded in an unhealthy secretiveness: "The truth is that judges do not want to talk to the outside world about what it is they do." Clearly written and based on a broad range of knowledge about the U.S. legal system, this book focuses on many basic problems: the complexity of our court system, with state and federal systems, overburdened courts and untrained judges. Further, as Mayer points out, the two methods of bringing judges to the bench appointment and election are marred by politics and ideology. Mayer (The Bankers) highlights a lack of professionalism: judges, for instance, though well-meaning, rarely rely on statistics about what actually prevents crime. In his last chapter, Mayer notes a few ways to fix what's broken: promoting, for example, a New York based program of "problem-solving courts" such as a court that offers, and monitors, treatment for nonviolent drug offenders that focus on how to make criminals feel responsible for their actions and prevent their participation in future crime. Amid the sea of problems he outlines, however, some readers might wish he had offered a more systematic set of recommendations.
