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FEWER RULES, BETTER PEOPLE

THE CASE FOR DISCRETION

A convincing case for rethinking inflexibility in rulemaking in favor of discretionary checks and balances.

A philosopher defends the place of discretion—read, bending the rules—in a legalistic world.

“What do you do with a boy caught stealing food to feed his hungry family?” So asks Lam provocatively, answering with an anecdote: A police officer is called to arrest a young shoplifter trying to feed his little brother with pilfered peanut butter, bread, and milk. The officer was no Inspector Javert. Instead, he suggested that the shopkeeper put the kid to work cleaning the parking lot until the food was paid for—a Solomonic solution that flies in the face of a legal culture that increasingly demands invariable sentencing. Discretion, as Lam observes, can often thwart or lessen crime, while mandatory-arrest policies yield unintended consequences, among them a far higher death toll among women who are victims of domestic violence. This may seem counterintuitive, but Lam’s point is that while rules are essential, “if the rules are good, the quality of the enforcer never matters.” All too often the rules are not good, or at any rate not good enough to cover every circumstance, whence leeway is called for: “Interpretive discretion exists because laws sometimes set vague standards.” This interpretive discretion makes room for prosecutors to plea bargain and judges to offer inventive alternatives to cookie-cutter punishments. Still, Lam adds, discretion needs to be attached to laws that have strong “guidance value” so that laws are not applied with “arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement,” as they so often are in, say, cases where the defendant is Black and not white. Legalism isn’t a failed system, Lam adds, but the laws must be good, for if they aren’t, “bad laws followed blindly and enforced unquestioningly have just as much chance to destroy good governance as the mediocre leader making mediocre decisions.”

A convincing case for rethinking inflexibility in rulemaking in favor of discretionary checks and balances.

Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2025

ISBN: 9781324051244

Page Count: 176

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025

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ROSE BOOK OF BIBLE CHARTS, MAPS AND TIME LINES

Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.

A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.

This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.

Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005

ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010

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THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

AND OTHER ESSAYS

This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.

Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955

ISBN: 0679733736

Page Count: 228

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955

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