One of my best friends and I wrote this together to help foreign lawyers understand US law and help US students understand law in general. George teaches this course at Columbia, and I've taught it at NYU and in other countries. This introduces you to the basic ideas in all the required law school courses, from both an American and a European viewpoint.

You will not read this book, but dipping into it will teach you a great deal about the law. Sir Edward Coke more or less invented the modern common law. This is a useful resource, and I wrote lots of notes to make it readable.

Hart's book is the most important book about law in a century. It is easy to read, but in places it is so good, you won't understand why it is important.

Kent Greenawalt is the most careful thinker about the relationship between morality and US law there is.

For those who didn't learn the tools of rhetoric in college, here is a great crash course.

If you haven't read this book, now is the time.

I'm putting this in because I think every student ought to know something about environmental law, and also because this whole series of Law's Stories is invaluable.

You just can't understand law in one place and understand the law. Comparative law is the study of law in more than one nation to understand better the law of each nation. There is no one better on Earth at this than H. Patrick Glen. And, his books are a joy to read.

The great improvement to law since the successes of the Civil Rights Movement has been to understand the lessons of Feminist Legal Theory in a broad and comprehensive way. Martha Minow's book places both movements in a great framework to revitalize fundamental American arguments for justice.

Everyone knows that the events of 9-11 challenged our view of security and law. This is the most careful exposition of the problem from the side of law ....

this.

... or watch it. I talk about this play and the way in which Hoffman depicts the Nazi judges and officials in my book, I Do Solemnly Swear.

Quite a few lawyers are fascinated by religion and the problem of the divine in human affairs. Jeremy Waldron's careful study of the role that religious argument played in John Locke's argument of equality is a great place to see why this is.

... Then read a nice story of the convention. This is new and well written...

... get a grip on why we'll never, ever be able to understand the constitution as a text alone...