Overview

This is the first book to explore the broad influence of computers and television on the evolution of the American legal process. Katsh asserts that the electronic media have had an increasingly powerful impact on all facets of American law - its methods, values, and societal role. These changes, he argues, are related primarily to the appearance of new means of storing, processing and communicating information. 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 new media's impact on law. Katsh broadens the debate about the relationship between law and the electronic media, explaining the critical role of information in many different aspects of the legal process and arguing that the influence of new modes of communication can be seen in changes occurring in goals, doctrines, concepts, and beliefs that underlie our system of law. In the history of law, fundamental change has occurred very infrequently. This book looks at law in an evolutionary and historical light and explains why these new forms of electronic communications may be the trigger for one of these rare transformations.

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9780195045901

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Reviews

A seminal book. --ABA Journal<br> 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<br> 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<br> 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<br> 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<br>

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. --TheNew 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

Author Information

Author of Taking Sides: Clashing Views of Controversial Legal Issues (Dushkin, 1988 3/ed.) and co-author of Before the Law (Hought Mifflin, 1988, 4/ed)

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