Jewish Law and American Law, Volume 1

“Levine’s recently published two-volume work, Jewish Law and American Law: A Comparative Study, is primarily a collection of his impressive contributions to the Jewish comparative project over the past three decades. A quick perusal of the two volumes serves as a ready reminder of why Levine has long been one of the academics central to Jewish law’s rise in the American legal academy. Covering his wide range of Jewish law writings, the two volumes traverse significant legal terrain, focusing on the areas of Levine’s primary scholarly emphasis. … For those interested in both Jewish law in particular, and religious law in general, [Jewish Law and American Law] serve[s] as [an] extraordinary exploration within the Jewish comparative law project.” —Michael A. Helfand, American Journal of Comparative Law, Vol. 67 No. 1 -- Michael A. Helfand * American Journal of Comparative Law *
“Samuel Levine’s two-volume book, Jewish Law and American Law: A Comparative Study, makes an important contribution to comparative law studies of criminal and constitutional law (volume 1), and analyses of law and narrative, legal history and law and public policy (volume 2). Lawyers, law students, and scholars of the legal profession are likely to be particularly interested in Section Five of volume 1, consisting of five chapters comparing the Jewish and U.S. legal systems. In a concise and enlightening fashion, Professor Levine explores numerous legal profession topics, offering contextual insights and raising ideas for future analysis.” —Eli Wald, JOTWELL -- Eli Wald * JOTWELL *
“Levine has distinguished himself as one of the foremost scholars and teachers of Jewish law in the American legal academy. Perhaps most importantly, Levine has taken on the role of gatherer and keeper of all things Jewish law within the American law school universe. … Jewish Law and American Law is perhaps best viewed in this context, as a work that helpfully gathers some of the most important and useful studies of comparative Jewish and American law in one place, and provides a valuable resource for those interested and working in the field.”—Shlomo C. Pill, Emory University School of Law, Journal of Law and Religion * Journal of Law and Religion *
“The recent two volume anthology of Professor Samuel J. Levine’s essays, articles and lectures on the intersection of Jewish and American Law, entitled Jewish Law and American Law: A Comparative Study, rewards readers with a penetrating insight into Professor Levine’s rich body of comparative legal scholarship. … [Jewish Law and American Law] reveals a lifetime of scholarship impossible to satisfactorily distill or summarize thoroughly for potential readers. However, its introduction to key concepts in Jewish Law and its capacity to bring those concepts into conversation with substantive topics in American Constitutional Law and professional ethics, rewards the reader with insights into a legal tradition which is both deeply imbricated in the American one and a principled alternative to it.” —Jeffrey B. Meyers, Thompson Rivers University, Global Journal of Comparative Law
“Jewish Law and American Law: A Comparative Study collects twenty-six essays by Samuel J. Levine … on an impressive array of topics that fall under the broad headings of the Jewish and American legal traditions and, frequently, the interrelationship between the two. Each chapter displays Levine’s mastery of both legal corpora, through clear arguments and copious documentation of primary sources and secondary literature in both Jewish and American law. … Readers will find that these illuminating essays provide an in-depth account of the issues at hand.” —Marc Herman, H-Judaic
“Levine’s work as a whole is laudable for the way in which he takes up the comparative task. … Levine’s essays are fully accessible to readers who have no prior knowledge of Jewish law, yet he also does not attempt to translate complex terms into comparative American language or modes of thought that would obscure the complexity of the ideas behind them. … The book is well worth having on the bookshelf of anyone who wants to think about what we can learn from Jewish law, the ethos of Jewish life, or religious legal systems generally, that make our study of our own secular legal systems and culture more incisive and critical.” —Marie A. Failinger, Mitchell Hamline School of Law, Touro Law Review