Elsner, Alan. Gates of Injustice: The Crisis in America's Prisons [1]. Saddler River: Pearson Education Inc., 2006. In this new edition, updated after the Abu Ghraib scandal, Elsner uses a conversational tone in recounting the aspects of day-to-day life for American inmates: drug and alcohol abuse, rampant disease, rape, murder and racism. Prisons, Elsner writes, are fertile ground where the worst aspects of society take root and blossom, and the majority of his book, drawing on data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, court cases and interviews with current and former inmates, paints a stark picture of a seedy world where guards rape inmates without fear of recourse and inmates can be left in lockdown for weeks as a budget cutting initiative. Instances of the sadistic creativity exhibited by inmates (generally with the aim of violating prison regulations) and guards (to punish inmates who have creatively violated prison regulations) pepper Elsner's sobering reportage, much of which concerns itself with figures and statistics so staggering that Elsner, clearly an advocate of prison reform, hesitates to even hint at solutions until the final chapter, when he outlines three elements of prison reform: reducing the number of new inmates, lowering recidivism rates and eradicating the "worst abuses within the system." An unflinching account of an uncomfortable subject, the book provides a window into an overlooked-and growing-segment of society and will appeal to readers interested in issues of justice and human rights.

Cole, David. Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism [2]. New York: The New Press, 2005. About 5,000 foreign nationals have been detained by the United States since September 11 and denied basic constitutional rights in the name of "wartime" expediency. Cole, who has litigated civil liberties cases on behalf of resident aliens and writes for the Nation, argues that denying foreigners rights within our legal system usually ends with citizens being stripped of those same rights. Cole (No Equal Justice) documents how this process has already started and discusses provisions of the Patriot Act that he believes will allow for even further government encroachment on our freedom. He also provides detailed historical examples of the government's record of persecuting opposition voices in the name of security against a foreign menace. He argues for the moral and pragmatic importance of avoiding a double standard and according foreigners the same rights as citizens.

 Cole, David. No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System [3]. New York: The New Press, 1999. New York: The New Press, 1999. The American criminal-justice system, writes Georgetown law professor David Cole, has effectively become a two-tiered system, with differing levels of regard depending on the race or class of a given citizen who comes into contact with it. The thousands of African Americans who have been confronted by law-enforcement agents nationwide for "fitting the description" of alleged perpetrators would likely concur, but, according to Cole, it isn't just the cops that operate this way; judges, prosecutors, juries, and legislators are equally complicit. If the barrage of illustrative cases he presents in No Equal Justice paints a picture of an antidemocratic society, his proposed solution--making the criminal-justice system more "community-based," strengthening the relationships between citizens to "stop" crime before it starts--holds out a promise of equality. Critics may argue that such a plan is unrealistic, but the problems he describes are all too real, and deserve the attention No Equal Justice provides.

 Cole, David, Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security [4]. New York: The New press, 2006."In responding to the threat of terrorism, we must not trample upon the very freedoms that we are fighting for," say Cole and Dempsey, experts on civil rights law. Reminding readers that the 1996 Anti-Terrorism Act, passed under the "influences of emotion and political posturing," was not only contrary to civil rights but also ineffective, they assert that a similar overreaction has occurred with the 2001 PATRIOT Act and conclude that there can be no trade-off between security and civil liberties.

  Watson, Peter, War on the Mind : The Military Uses and Abuses of Psychology [5]. New York: Basic Books, 1978. This is a fascinating descriptive analysis of the rapidly growing number of psychological techniques being applied to military purposes. Main topics include combat psychiatry, leadership and selection, and psychological warfare. A remarkably comprehensive and powerful study.

 Wright, Peter. “Intellectual History of Euro-American Jurisprudence and the Islamic Alternative.” Muslim Contributions to World Civilization [6].  Eds. M. Basheer Ahmed, Syed A. Ahsani, Dilnawaz A. Siddiqui. Herdon: The International Institute of Islamic Thought, 2005. 38-53. The legal systems that presently prevail in Europe, the Americas, and in polities colonized and formerly colonized by Europe evolved in specific historical contents and cultural milieus. Nevertheless, they share certain common presumptions that are rarely articulated or exposed to critical scrutiny. It is the task of this chapter to begin to articulate these common presumptions and to attempt to engage them constructively by a comparative study of a rival legal system, such as may be found in accepted principles of Islamic Shariah.