| International Standard Book Number |
9781324091264
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| Dewey Decimal Classification Number |
344.7301/133
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| Personal Name |
Ossei-Owusu, Shaun, author.
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| Title Statement |
Law on trial : an unlikely insider reckons with our legal system / Shaun Ossei-Owusu.
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| Edition Statement |
First edition.
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| Imprint |
New York : W.W. Norton & Company, 2026.
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| Physical Description |
422 pages ; 24 cm.
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| Bibliography, Etc. Note |
Includes bibliographical references and (pages 363-407) and index.
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| Formatted Contents Note |
Legal Bootcamp -- Manufactured Consent and Contractual Inequality -- Injurious Matters : Tort Law and the Narrow Construction of Harm -- Property, Ownership, and Injustice -- Textbook Injustice : Criminal Law and the Unspoken Politics of Punishment -- The Ultimate Con Job? Constitutional Law and the Effacement of History and Politics -- Civil Procedure and the Architecture of Inequality -- The Power to Choose : Prosecutors and the Criminal Justice Machinery -- Municipal Matters : The Hidden Civil Power of County Counsel and City Hall Attorneys -- Transactional Violence : Healthcare and the Afterlives of Mergers and Acquisitions -- Environmental Degradation in the Regulatory Wild West -- Litigating Labor : Class Action Killers, Wage Theft Accomplices, and Union Busters -- How We Got Here : The Political and Economic Straightjacketing of Public Interest Law -- Power, Prejudice, and Paternalism in the Pink Ghetto -- High-Level Impact Litigation and Inequality -- Conclusion : For the Record.
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| Citation/References Note |
Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2026.
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| Citation/References Note |
Publishers Weekly Starred Reviews.
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| Citation/References Note |
Publishers Weekly, February 16, 2026.
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| Summary, Etc. |
"The law is supposed to represent fairness, equality, and transparency. Yet in a world where injustice is normalized, many struggle to understand why our legal system fails despite its lofty principles. In Law on Trial, award-winning legal scholar Shaun Ossei-Owusu offers a rare perspective as an insider and a clear-eyed critic of its deep, baked-in structural problems. He begins with a tour through American legal education, where some of the seeds of inequality are planted in the emphasis on abstract thinking. He then moves to different corners of the profession where those seeds flourish: elite law firms, government offices, and well-intended public-interest organizations. At every step, Ossei-Owusu confronts some of America's polarizing topics-crime, poverty, and corporate power-and highlights the legal profession's troubling complicity. His defiant dissents challenge liberal and conservative orthodoxy while illuminating how the legal system might move closer to its highest aspirations"-- Provided by publisher.
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| Target Audience Note |
Adult Brodart.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Equality before the law United States.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Discrimination in justice administration United States.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Fairness.
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| Subject Added Entry - Topical Term |
Equity United States.
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