"Burke drills deep into America's unique culture of litigation and is rewarded with a powerful insight:
it is not the public or even lawyers that are so darn litigious, but American law itself. This meticulous, dispassionate
book stands not only to advance the debate but--I hope--to reshape it."
--Jonathan Rauch, author of Government's End: Why Washington Stopped Working
"Lawyers, Lawsuits, and Legal Rights is a fascinating study of the American penchant for public policies that
rely on lawsuits to get things done. Burke's analysis is insightful and original. This book compellingly shows
that litigious policies have deep roots in our Constitution, culture, and politics."
--Charles Epp, author of The Rights Revolution: Lawyers, Activists, and Supreme Courts in Comparative Perspective
"Burke's authoritative book demonstrates that the highly litigious American system is not an isolated anomaly
but in fact fits in with deeply-rooted elements of American political culture. Where citizens of other countries
rely on expert or bureaucratic judgment to resolve disputes, Americans turn to the courts. Equally novel and compelling,
Lawyers, Lawsuits, and Legal Rights marshals an impressive set of evidence and delivers a refreshingly well-written
look at the state of American litigation."
--Frank R. Baumgartner, co-author of Agendas and Instability in American Politics
Publisher Web Site, July 2005
Summary
Lawsuits over coffee burns, playground injuries, even bad teaching: litigation "horror stories" create
the impression that Americans are greedy, quarrelsome, and sue-happy. The truth, as this book makes clear, is quite
different. What Thomas Burke describes in Lawyers, Lawsuits, and Legal Rights is a nation not of litigious citizens,
but of litigious policies--laws that promote the use of litigation in resolving disputes and implementing public
policies. This book is a cogent account of how such policies have come to shape public life and everyday practices
in the United States.
As litigious policies have proliferated, so have struggles to limit litigation--and these struggles offer insight
into the nation's court-centered public policy style. Burke focuses on three cases: the effort to block the Americans
with Disabilities Act; an attempt to reduce accident litigation by creating a no-fault auto insurance system in
California; and the enactment of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Act. These cases suggest that litigious policies
are deeply rooted in the American constitutional tradition. Burke shows how the diffuse, divided structure of American
government, together with the anti-statist ethos of American political culture, creates incentives for political
actors to use the courts to address their concerns. The first clear and comprehensive account of the national politics
of litigation, his work provides a new way to understand and address the "litigiousness" of American
society.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Battle over Litigation
2. The Creation of a Litigious Policy: The Americans with Disabilities Act
3. A Failed Antilitigation Effort: The Struggle over No-Fault Auto Insurance in California
4. A Shot of Antilitigation Reform: The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program