Rights of Inclusion: Law and Identity in the Life Stories of Americans with Disabilities (Chicago Series in Law and Society)

Rights of Inclusion provides an innovative, accessible perspective on how civil rights legislation affects the lives of ordinary Americans. Based on eye-opening and deeply moving interviews with intended beneficiaries of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), David M. Engel and Frank W. Munger argue for a radically new understanding of rights-one that focuses on their role in everyday lives rather than in formal legal claims.Although all sixty interviewees had experienced discrimination, none had filed a formal protest or lawsuit. Nevertheless, civil rights played a crucial role in their lives. Rights improved their self-image, enhanced their career aspirations, and altered the perceptions and assumptions of their employers and coworkers-in effect producing more inclusive institutional arrangements. Focusing on these long-term life histories, Engel and Munger incisively show how rights and identity affect one another over time and how that interaction ultimately determines the success of laws such as the ADA.

Engel, David M.

Munger, Frank W.

Constitutional Law

University of Chicago Press

Why do Americans seem to sue at the slightest provocation? The answer may surprise you: we don’t! For every “Whiplash Charlie” who sees a car accident as a chance to make millions, for every McDonald’s customer to pursue a claim over a too-hot cup of coffee, many more Americans suffer injuries but make no claims against those responsible or their insurance companies. The question is not why Americans sue but why we don’t sue more often, and the answer can be found in how we think about injury and personal responsibility. With this book, David M. Engel demolishes the myth that America is a litigious society. The sobering reality is that the vast majority of injury victims—more than nine out of ten—rely on their own resources, family and friends, and government programs to cover their losses. When real people experience serious injuries, they don’t respond as rational actors. Trauma and pain disrupt their thoughts, and potential claims are discouraged by negative stereotypes that pervade American television and popular culture. (Think Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad, who keeps a box of neck braces in his office to help clients exaggerate their injuries.) Cultural norms make preventable injuries appear inevitable—or the victim’s fault. We’re taught to accept setbacks stoically and not blame someone else. But this tendency to “lump it” doesn’t just hurt the victims; it hurts us all. As politicians continue to push reforms that miss the real problem, we risk losing these claims as a way to quickly identify unsafe products and practices. Because injuries disproportionately fall on people with fewer resources, the existing framework creates a social underclass whose needs must be met by government programs all citizens shoulder while shielding those who cause the harm. It’s time for America to have a more responsible, blame-free discussion about injuries and the law. With The Myth of the Litigious Society, Engel takes readers clearly and powerfully through what we really know about injury victims and concludes with recommendations for how we might improve the situation.

The Myth of the Litigious Society: Why We Don't Sue (Chicago Series in Law and Society)

Rules & Procedures

Many commentators on the contemporary United States believe that current rates of litigation are a sign of decay in the nation’s social fabric. Law and Community in Three American Towns explores how ordinary people in three towns―located in New England, the Midwest, and the South―view the law, courts, litigants, and social order.Carol J. Greenhouse, Barbara Yngvesson, and David M. Engel analyze attitudes toward law and law users as a way of commentating on major American myths and ongoing changes in American society. They show that residents of "Riverside," "Sander County," and "Hopewell" interpret litigation as a sign of social decline, but they also value law as a symbol of their local way of life. The book focuses on this ambivalence and relates it to the deeply-felt tensions express between "community" and "rights" as rival bases of society.The authors, two anthropologists and a lawyer, each with an understanding of a particular region, were surprised to discover that such different locales produced parallel findings. They undertook a comparative project to find out why ambivalence toward the law and law use should be such a common refrain. The answer, they believe, turns out to be less a matter of local traditions than of the ways that people perceive the patterns of their lives as being vulnerable to external forces of change.

Law and Community in Three American Towns

History

Greenhouse, Carol J.

Yngvesson, Barbara

Americas

Cornell University Press

Many commentators on the contemporary United States believe that current rates of litigation are a sign of decay in the nation’s social fabric. Law and Community in Three American Towns explores how ordinary people in three towns―located in New England, the Midwest, and the South―view the law, courts, litigants, and social order.
Carol J. Greenhouse, Barbara Yngvesson, and David M. Engel analyze attitudes toward law and law users as a way of commentating on major American myths and ongoing changes in American society. They show that residents of "Riverside," "Sander County," and "Hopewell" interpret litigation as a sign of social decline, but they also value law as a symbol of their local way of life. The book focuses on this ambivalence and relates it to the deeply-felt tensions express between "community" and "rights" as rival bases of society.
The authors, two anthropologists and a lawyer, each with an understanding of a particular region, were surprised to discover that such different locales produced parallel findings. They undertook a comparative project to find out why ambivalence toward the law and law use should be such a common refrain. The answer, they believe, turns out to be less a matter of local traditions than of the ways that people perceive the patterns of their lives as being vulnerable to external forces of change.

ummary: The Association for Asian Studies: Monograph number XXXIV
Paul Wheatley, General Editor

Back cover:

Because Thailand's leaders have regarded the legal system as the force that drives the machinery of modern society, Thai Law has been used as a means to change social order.

David M. Engel focuses on their western-inspired legal system, the traditional legal culture, and the interaction of the two in a provincial court. Here national legal structure meets the realities of traditional Thai life.

While the changes in Thai law provide a powerful symbol of modernity, the legal system has been influenced by the older customs of justice in the countryside. Although the central government has extended its power and affected some social changes in the provinces, traditional concepts of justice persist among local citizens and bureaucrats.

Engel skillfully analyzes Thai provincial justice, a complex blend of classical Buddhism, village practices, and western theory.

Code and custom in a Thai provincial court: The interaction of formal and informal systems of justice (Monographs of the Association for Asian Studies ; no. 34)

Published for the Association for Asian Studies by the University of Arizona Press

The Asian Law and Society Reader

The first reader on Asian law and society scholarship, this book features reading selections from a wide range of Asian countries - East, South, Southeast and Central Asia - along with original commentaries by the three editors on the theoretical debates and research methods pertinent to the discipline. Organized by themes and topical areas, the reader enables scholars and students to break out of country-specific silos to make theoretical connections across national borders. It meets a growing demand for law and society materials in institutions and universities in Asia and around the world. It is written at a level accessible to advanced undergraduate students and graduate students as well as experienced researchers, and serves as a valuable teaching tool for courses focused on Asian law and society in law schools, area studies, history, religion, and social science fields such as sociology, anthropology, politics, government, and criminal justice.

Liu, Sida

Chua, Lynette J.

Religion & Spirituality

Cambridge University Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Engel, David M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Engel, David M.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Engel, David M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Rights of Inclusion: Law and Identity in the Life Stories of Americans with Disabilities (Chicago Series in Law and Society)

The Myth of the Litigious Society: Why We Don't Sue (Chicago Series in Law and Society)

Law and Community in Three American Towns

Law and Community in Three American Towns

Code and custom in a Thai provincial court: The interaction of formal and informal systems of justice (Monographs of the Association for Asian Studies ; no. 34)

The Asian Law and Society Reader