What Books on Law Should Be

Authors

Richard A. Posner, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh CircuitFollow

Abstract

I have thought it might be useful to our profession, and appropriate to a foreword to a collection of reviews of newly published books on law, to set forth some ideas on how books can best serve members of the different branches of the legal profession — specifically judges, practicing lawyers, law students, and academic lawyers — plus persons outside the legal profession who are interested in law. I am not interested in which already published books should be retained and which discarded, but in what type of book about law should be written from this day forward. I will mention a few existing books but only as examples of the sort of law-related book for which there is a current need. I mentioned four legal audiences. I’ll begin with judges because, as I’ll explain, the best books for practicing lawyers, law students, and academic lawyers are books that judges should also read.

Recommended Citation

Richard A. Posner, What Books on Law Should Be, 112 Mich. L. Rev. 859 (2014).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol112/iss6/1