By Jo Freeman

This is a law book written for a general audience. Tigar* has been a law professor most of his life; in these pages one can learn much from his vast legal and historical knowledge.

Multiple chapters are spread out over five "mythologies":  Racism, Criminal Justice, Free Expression, Worker Rights and International Human Rights.

His discussion of these mythologies is not neutral; he has a point of view and it's generally from the left.

His chapter on race starts with the 1944 Supreme Court decision upholding the war-time internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast. The Court accepted the myth that these Americans might help the Japanese government even though there was no supporting evidence. Mythologies often "justify a leap from perceived danger to repression." Of course, he discusses the myths behind "separate but equal" and why it was so hard to end that doctrine. 

Tigar draws upon his own experience in his discussion of the criminal justice system as he represented many criminal defendants in different states. He believes that "fair trial" is one of the myths of the system and he writes about several such myths. 

Free expression in the marketplace of ideas is another illusion he exposes, identifying four ways it has been undermined. These are state repression, control of the means of communication, the private property norm, and treating information as a form of property.

Not surprisingly, worker rights are the fourth mythology. There was a time when workers didn't have any rights. Employers claimed that any effort to organize for higher wages was a form of extortion, especially if backed up by action. Tigar's long explanation of how this evolved cannot be summed up; it has to be read.

His fifth mythology of international human rights is trickier because it raises the issue of whether suppression of human rights in other countries can be brought in US courts. It depends.....

If you want some provocative thinking in these days of the doldrums, this is the book for you.

*B.A., 1962, J.D., 1966, Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley. Professor Tigar was an associate and partner at Williams & Connolly and partner in his own firm, Tigar & Buffone. Since 1996, he has been associated in law practice with his wife Jane B. Tigar. He has been an acting professor of law at UCLA, Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Law at the University of Texas, and holder of an endowed professorship at Washington College of Law, where he is professor emeritus. He has been a visiting professor at the Faculté de Droit et des sciences politiques, Université Paul Cezanne, Aix-en-Provence.

© 2020 Jo Freeman for SeniorWomen.com

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