Friend v. Friend

Friend v. Friend is a fascinating and well-researched text that will undoubtedly spark lively discussion among law students and casual legal theorists alike. The book certainly belongs in any academic law library, and other libraries with strong legal theory collections should also consider its purchase. With seven well-organized chapters, a robust index, and extensive notes, Friend v. Friend succinctly introduces a valuable new way of thinking about friendship and the law. * Arlene I. Fletcher, Law Library Journal *
Should the law intervene in the world of friendship? In Friend v. Friend, Ethan Leib offers a provocative affirmative answer. With engaging style and illuminating arguments, Leib shows why and how the law and public policy can bolster some of our most vital intimate connections. Shattering misconceptions, the book pioneers a new vision of contemporary friendship. * Viviana A. Zelizer, Professor of Sociology, Princeton University, and author of Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy *
Ethan Leib has written a remarkable meditation not only on friendship, but also on the degree to which legal institutions should acknowledge the reality of friendships in a variety of different contexts. Sometimes this would have the effect of protecting friends against the intrusion of the state; other times, however, the state might be willing to enforce certain expectations of friendship upon their betrayal by someone now viewed as a 'false friend.' One need not agree with all of Leib's particular arguments in order to feel genuinely stimulated and challenged about something that is presumably important to all of us. * Sanford Levinson, Professor of Law, University of Texas Law School, and author of Testimonial Privileges and the Preferences of Friendship *
Ethan Leib persuasively argues for friendship's proper place in the law and, surprisingly, that the legal system can properly protect and nourish friendship's rich textures of intimacy and mutual engagement. Social scientists who have long considered friendship as inimical to all formality, certainly to law, are in for a bracing challenge. Leib's book is a model of clarity of thought, grace in argument and lucidity of style. * Allan Silver, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Columbia University *
Friend v. Friend is a vivid, broad-ranging, and always engaging essay on a subject whose importance is matched only by its prior neglect. Ethan Leib has made an insistently human and yet still practical intervention into a relation that lies at the center of every thriving social order and each flourishing individual life. * Daniel Markovits, Professor of Law, Yale Law School, author of A Modern Legal Ethics: Adversary Advocacy in a Democratic Age *
Leib's book ... [is] successful as a reflection on the complex relationship between law and friendship, and it will offer rewards to people interested in the sociology of friendship. A particularly fine chapter discusses the relationship between friendship and contract law, and the surprising degree of overlap between the two. * Eric A. Posner, The New Republic *
The book contains excellent references, is easy to read, and provides a first-rate index of its contents... Highly recommended." -CHOICE