The Electronic Media and the Transformation of Law

by M. Ethan Katsh

Overview

Highly publicized legal cases, such as those involving libel verdicts, obscenity prosecutions, the First Amendment, and other areas of media law have focused attention on only one part of the media's impact on law. This study, the first to explore the broad influence of computers and television on the future of the legal process, explains the critical role of information and argues that the influence of the new modes of communication can be seen in changes occurring in many areas of the law. These areas include the goals and purposes of law, the doctrines and rules of law, the processes law uses to settle disputes and shape behavior, the legal profession, and the values and concepts that underlie our system of law.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195364446
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/27/1989
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	718 KB

About the Author

University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Table of Contents

	Introduction: Law as a Process of Communication	3
1	The Erosion of Precedent and the Acceleration of Change	17
2	Law, Media, and Conflict	49
3	Freedom of Expression: Rights and Realities	113
4	Legal Doctrines and Information: The Medium Has a Message	168
5	The Legal Profession	198
6	Law and the Modern Mind: Orientations and Perspectives	227
	Conclusion	266
	Notes	269
	Bibliography	307
	Index	339

Editorial Reviews

"A seminal book."—ABA Journal

"Katsh maintains that new forms of electronic communication, in their ability to foster more and faster links among people, will be supportive both of less abstraction in legal relations and of greater group consciousness in the formulation of our legal ideals....Mr. Katsh suggests that as our legal categories and traditions become archaic, law will change into an enterprise more responsive to real needs, in which communication is inevitably more nuanced, more frequent, less literal (even less literate) and more like a conversation....This is an absorbing book, evocative and optimistic."—The New York Times Book Review

"In this lucid, well-documented commentary, he persuasively argues that the telecommunications media are effecting fundamental changes in legal doctrine concerning individual expression and, more specifically, the creation, storage, processing, and dissemination of information....A first-class book, essential for law and journalism collections."—Library Journal

"An unusually appealing combination of lively writing and learned thought that will attract considerable attention across several fields. This is a first rate book."—Aviam Soife, Boston University

"A significant contribution to the field but, more importantly, to culture generally. His approach is a sound one. In dealing with law, Katsh does not fragment the legal system into discrete doctrines but rather addresses the structural or underlying elements which the new technology is transforming."—Saul Touster, Brandeis University

From the Publisher