The wide-ranging scholarly interests of the Columbia Law School faculty are reflected in the array of books they edit and write on legal, economic, political, and social issues. Here are seven titles they published this year.
In their books, faculty approach legal and societal issues from theoretical, empirical, and practical perspectives on topics including copyright and artificial intelligence, labor law, gender and race, and constitutional questions regarding reproductive rights and the use of recreational drugs.
Lee C. Bollinger ’71
In Search of an Open Mind: Speeches and Writings
Columbia University Press, November 2024
Roe v. Dobbs: The Past, Present, and Future of a Constitutional Right to Abortion
Oxford University Press, July 2024
While serving as the president of Columbia University for 21 years, Lee C. Bollinger ’71, Seth Low Professor of the University, was outspoken within the academy and beyond about issues such as the challenges facing journalism, global free speech, academic freedom, and the value of affirmative action in higher education. In Search of an Open Mind is a collection of selected articles, speeches, and op-eds by Bollinger, who is one of the nation’s leading First Amendment scholars; the book covers topics ranging from civil rights and civil liberties to the nature of the university and living a good life.
In their book Roe v. Dobbs, Bollinger and co-editor Geoffrey Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, have compiled commentary from a range of academics on American culture and the legal landscape following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that overturned the constitutional right to abortion.
Kimberlé W. Crenshaw
Blackness at the Intersection
Bloomsbury, February 2024
Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law, coined the term “intersectionality”—to describe how race, class, gender, and other individual characteristics “intersect” with one another and overlap—in the late 1980s. She is also a founder and leader of the critical race theory intellectual movement of interdisciplinary scholarship on race, racism, and law. This anthology—curated by Crenshaw; Kehinde Andrews, professor of Black studies at Birmingham City University; Annabel Wilson, a research fellow at Oxford University Department of Education; and several other leading scholars—incorporates the concepts of both critical race theory and intersectionality to examine Blackness outside of the United States; in this case, applying the concepts to the Black diasporic experience in Britain.
Jane C. Ginsburg
Copyright Law(Second Edition)
Foundation Press, July 2024
The intellectual property sphere has experienced seismic changes since 2012, when Jane C. Ginsburg, Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law, published the first edition of Copyright Law with co-author Robert A. Gorman, Kenneth W. Gemmill Professor, Emeritus, at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. For the second edition, the authors updated every chapter to reflect changes in case law, legislation, and copyright office guidance. Written in a style that is accessible to both students and practitioners, the book offers extensive new material on copyright and artificial intelligence.
Michael Graetz
The Power to Destroy:How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America
Princeton University Press, February 2024
When California passed the Proposition 13 property tax cap in 1978, it transformed American politics and economic policy, writes Michael Graetz, Columbia Alumni Professor Emeritus of Tax Law, in The Power to Destroy. The book traces the trajectory of the antitax movement from a fringe group to a destructive, mainstream political force. Graetz explains how the movement threatens the nation’s social safety net, increases inequality, swells the national debt, and saps America’s financial strength.
Gillian Lester
The Oxford Handbook of the Law of Work
Oxford University Press, November 2024
Labor law scholars from around the world contributed 60 chapters to The Oxford Handbook of the Law of Work, edited by Gillian Lester, Alphonse Fletcher Jr. Professor of Law and Dean Emerita, with Guy Davidov, Elias Lieberman Chair in Labour Law at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Brian Langille, professor of law at the University of Toronto. The book offers a comprehensive overview of the laws regulating work in theory and in practice, examining topics that include collective labor law, individual employment law, workplace discrimination, international law, and extending labor protections beyond traditional boundaries.
David Pozen
The Constitution of the War on Drugs
Oxford University Press, April 2024
Do you have a constitutional right to party? As cannabis use has become more commonplace and legal in many states, David Pozen, Charles Keller Beekman Professor of Law, wanted to answer that question. In The Constitution of the War on Drugs, he explores each type of constitutional claim brought against drug prohibitions, including due process, equal protection, federalism, free speech, free exercise of religion, and humane punishment. “The book probably would sell better if the framing was ‘I’m here to tell you that you have a right to use drugs!’” says Pozen. “Instead, I’m here to tell readers that it’s plausible that certain kinds of drug rights exist—and that the story of how they came to seem implausible is interesting and instructive.”
https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/faculty-books-2024-year-review
