[EL] New casebook

[Jim Gardner]

Dear Colleagues:



With grateful acknowledgment of Rick Hasen’s generosity in permitting us to post this announcement to this listserv, Guy Charles and I are extremely pleased to announce that Aspen Press will publish this August our new casebook, Election Law in the American Political System.  I hope you will indulge this somewhat long-ish introduction (okay, promotion); we promise not to try your patience again.



One of our principal goals in writing the book has been to strike what we feel is an appropriate balance among legal doctrine, political theory, and political science. For those who teach a doctrinal course, we have tried to provide cases that are logically organized and carefully edited. For those who like to supplement the cases with political theory and political science, we've provided accessible expository materials as well as background readings in democratic theory, history, and political science.  In so doing, we’ve tried to present materials that don’t overwhelm students, but that may guide them in thinking more deeply about the doctrinal and policy issues presented in the field. 



The book begins with a succinct overview of the major extant theories of democracy. Short readings from political philosophers like John Locke and John Stuart Mill; democratic theorists such as Benjamin Barber, Anthony Downs, Judith Shklar, and Joshua Cohen; and social scientists such as political historian Jean Baker and political network theorists Robert Huckfeldt and John Sprague, provide students with a stock of concepts that, while rarely capable of resolving difficult questions, serve the useful function of providing some well-grounded conceptual landmarks against which students may orient their own intuitions. 



The book’s doctrinal coverage begins with the right to vote. It then examines the constitutional framework governing representation of voters in legislative bodies. Coverage includes the nature and basis of political representation, how the law defines the community represented, the problem of virtual representation, one person-one vote, and much more.  The book then devotes significant coverage to federal statutory regulation of the representation relationship in the form of the Voting Rights Act. 



>From there, the book moves on to consider the legal treatment of candidates for office. This section also devotes attention to the unusual nature of candidates for judicial office, and the special rules that apply to judicial elections. Coverage moves next to the party system, including principles of ballot access, the constitutional status of the two-party system, regulation of primary elections, and political patronage. It then proceeds to election campaigns, covering constitutional treatment of the regulation of campaign speech, before moving on to devote considerable and detailed attention to campaign finance. Finally, the book concludes with the newly-emerged topic of election administration, which it considers alongside the body of law governing remedies for electoral mistakes and maladministration.   A comprehensive Teacher's Manual provides guidance on how to use the readings as well as on different ways to organize the course.



We hope you’ll take a look at the casebook and let us know what you think. We are also very interested in hearing from those of you who teach in political science departments. The book should be available for fall adopters. For further information, please see the attached flyer. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me or Guy. 



Best regards,

Jim and Guy

________________________________
James A. Gardner
Joseph W. Belluck and Laura L. Aswad
  SUNY Distinguished Professor of Civil Justice
SUNY Buffalo Law School
The State University of New York
Room 316, O'Brian Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-1100
voice: 716-645-2052
fax: 716-645-5968
e-mail: jgard at buffalo.edu
www.law.buffalo.edu
Papers at http://ssrn.com/author=40126

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