Jewish Law and American Law, Volume 1

Samuel J. Levine is Professor of Law and Director of the Jewish Law Institute at Touro Law Center. He has also served as the Beznos Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University College of Law, and he has taught at the law schools at Bar-Ilan, Fordham, Pepperdine, and St. John’s Universities.

• IntroductionSection One. The Comparative Study of Jewish Law and American Law: An Introduction1. Teaching Jewish Law in American Law Schools: An Emerging Development in Law and Religion2. Applying Jewish Legal Theory in the Context of American Law and Legal Scholarship: A Methodological Analysis3. An Introduction to Interpretation in Jewish Law, with References to American Legal Theory4. An Introduction to Legislation in Jewish Law, with References to the American Legal SystemSection Two. Capital Punishment5. Capital Punishment in Jewish Law and Its Application to the American Legal System: A Conceptual Overview6. Playing God: An Essay on Law, Philosophy, and American Capital PunishmentSection Three. Self-Incrimination7. An Introduction to Self-Incrimination in Jewish Law, with Application to the American Legal System: A Psychological and Philosophical Analysis8. Miranda, Dickerson, and Jewish Legal Theory: The Constitutional Rule in a Comparative Analytical FrameworkSection Four. Constitutional Theory9. Unenumerated Constitutional Rights and Unenumerated Biblical Obligations: A Preliminary Study in Comparative Hermeneutics10. Rules and Standards in Jewish Law and American Constitutional Law  11. Of Inkblots and Omnisignificance: Conceptualizing Secondary and Symbolic Functions of the Ninth Amendment in a Comparative Hermeneutic FrameworkSection Five. Legal Practice12. Reflections on the Practice of Law as a Religious Calling from a Perspective of Jewish Law and Ethics13. A Look at American Legal Practice through a Perspective of Jewish Law, Ethics, and Tradition: A Conceptual Overview14. Taking Ethics Codes Seriously: Broad Ethics Provisions and Unenumerated Ethical Obligations in a Comparative Hermeneutic Framework15. Taking Prosecutorial Ethics Seriously: A Consideration of the Prosecutor's Ethical Obligation to "Seek Justice" in a Comparative Analytical Framework  16. Taking Ethical Obligations Seriously: A Look at American Codes of Professional Responsibility through a Perspective of Jewish Law and EthicsIndex

"Levine'srecently published two-volume work, Jewish Law and American Law: AComparative Study, is primarily a collection of his impressive contributionsto the Jewish comparative project over the past three decades. A quick perusalof the two volumes serves as a ready reminder of why Levine has long been oneof the academics central to Jewish law's rise in the American legal academy. Coveringhis wide range of Jewish law writings, the two volumes traverse significantlegal terrain, focusing on the areas of Levine's primary scholarly emphasis. … Forthose interested in both Jewish law in particular, and religious law in general,[Jewish Law and American Law] serve[s]as [an] extraordinary exploration within the Jewish comparative law project." —MichaelA. Helfand, American Journal ofComparative Law, Vol. 67 No. 1"Samuel Levine's two-volume book, Jewish Law and AmericanLaw: A Comparative Study, makes an important contribution to comparativelaw studies of criminal and constitutional law (volume 1), and analyses of lawand narrative, legal history and law and public policy (volume 2). Lawyers, lawstudents, and scholars of the legal profession are likely to be particularlyinterested in Section Five of volume 1, consisting of five chapters comparingthe Jewish and U.S. legal systems. In a concise and enlightening fashion,Professor Levine explores numerous legal profession topics, offering contextualinsights and raising ideas for future analysis." —Eli Wald, JOTWELL"Levine hasdistinguished himself as one of the foremost scholars and teachers of Jewishlaw in the American legal academy. Perhaps most importantly, Levine has takenon the role of gatherer and keeper of all things Jewish law within the Americanlaw school universe. … Jewish Law and American Law is perhaps bestviewed in this context, as a work that helpfully gathers some of the mostimportant and useful studies of comparative Jewish and American law in oneplace, and provides a valuable resource for those interested and working in thefield."—ShlomoC. Pill, Emory University School of Law, Journal of Law and Religion"The recent two volume anthology of Professor Samuel J.Levine's essays, articles and lectures on the intersection of Jewish andAmerican Law, entitled Jewish Law and American Law: A Comparative Study,rewards readers with a penetrating insight into Professor Levine's rich body ofcomparative legal scholarship. … [Jewish Law and American Law] reveals alifetime of scholarship impossible to satisfactorily distill or summarizethoroughly for potential readers. However, its introduction to key concepts inJewish Law and its capacity to bring those concepts into conversation withsubstantive topics in American Constitutional Law and professional ethics,rewards the reader with insights into a legal tradition which is both deeplyimbricated in the American one and a principled alternative to it." —JeffreyB. Meyers, Thompson Rivers University, Global Journal of Comparative Law"Jewish Law and American Law: A Comparative Study collects twenty-six essays by Samuel J. Levine … on an impressive array of topics that fall under the broad headings of the Jewish and American legal traditions and, frequently, the interrelationship between the two. Each chapter displays Levine's mastery of both legal corpora, through clear arguments and copious documentation of primary sources and secondary literature in both Jewish and American law. … Readers will find that these illuminating essays provide an in-depth account of the issues at hand." —Marc Herman, H-Judaic"Levine's work as a whole is laudable for the way in which he takes up the comparative task. … Levine's essays are fully accessible to readers who have no prior knowledge of Jewish law, yet he also does not attempt to translate complex terms into comparative American language or modes of thought that would obscure the complexity of the ideas behind them. … The book is well worth having on the bookshelf of anyone who wants to think about what we can learn from Jewish law, the ethos of Jewish life, or religious legal systems generally, that make our study of our own secular legal systems and culture more incisive and critical."—Marie A. Failinger, Mitchell Hamline School of Law, Touro Law Review