Justice Accused

by Robert M. Cover

Book Overview

What should a judge do when he must hand down a ruling based on a law that he considers unjust or oppressive? This question is examined through a series of problems concerning unjust law that arose with respect to slavery in nineteenth-century America. "Cover's book is splendid in many ways. His legal history and legal philosophy are both first class. . . . This is, for a change, an interdisciplinary work that is a credit to both disciplines."-Ronald...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300032528
• ISBN13: 9780300032529
• Release Date: September 1984
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 322 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

The Deeper Question

I studied this book in law school. I think the central question of this book is a little deeper than the way the previous reviewer phrased it. The book explores the conflict that occurs when a judge perceives that the law applying to a case before him is not a just one and will result in injustice if applied in the current case. Does the judge simply apply the law, or find some way around it to allow for a just result? This is an interesting question today, given the debate between "strict construction" of the Constitution and Holmes' popular notion that the Constitution is a "living document" whose interpretation must evolve with the times. The chief example used in this book is the infamous Dred Scott decision, in which a slave who had lived for many years on free soil, sued for his freedom, but was turned down by the Supreme Court on Constitutional grounds -- although presumably the judges knew that this was not a just result.

One of my favorite book

Justice Accused addresses why antebellum judges who opposed slavery nonetheless felt powerless to do any thing but enforce it.