Law's Allure explains how, when, and why America's reliance on legal rules and judicial decisions shapes, constrains, saves, and sometimes even kills politics.

Gordon Silverstein is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. A former journalist with a PhD from Harvard University, Massachusetts, Professor Silverstein also has taught at Rice University, Houston, Dartmouth College, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, and the University of Minnesota. Silverstein has written a number of articles and book chapters on American politics, the separation of powers, and judicial power in comparative perspective and is the author of Imbalance of Powers: Constitutional Interpretation and the Making of American Foreign Policy (1996).

Introduction: law's allure and American politics; Part I. Law's Allure: Why, and Why Now, and Why it Matters: 1. Law's allure: motives, incentives, patterns, and process; 2. Why now? The expansion and acceleration of law's allure; 3. Why it matters: law is different - a theory of precedent; Part II. Law's Allure: Patterns, Process, and Cautionary Tales: 4. Poverty and abortion: the risks and rewards of a judicial strategy; 5. Environmental regulation: a constructive process; 6. Campaign finance: a de-constructive process; 7. When the court says yes - and no: the special prosecutor, budget control, and line item vetoes; 8. When the court is reluctant to intervene: war powers; Part III. Law's Allure: Costs and Consequences: 9. Tobacco: the promise and peril of law's allure; Conclusion: law's allure and American politics: for better - and worse.