Undue Process

Why do autocrats hold political trials when outcomes are presumed known from the start? Undue Process examines how autocrats weaponize the judiciary to stay in control. Contrary to conventional wisdom that courts constrain arbitrary power, Shen-Bayh argues that judicial processes can instead be used to legitimize dictatorship and dissuade dissent when power is contested. Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa since independence, Shen-Bayh draws on fine-grained archival data on regime threats and state repression to explain why political trials are often political purges in disguise, providing legal cover for the persecution of regime rivals. This compelling analysis reveals how courts can be used to repress political challengers, institutionalize punishment, and undermine the rule of law. Engaging and illuminating, Undue Process provides new theoretical insights into autocratic judiciaries and will interest political scientists and scholars studying authoritarian regimes, African politics, and political control.

Why do autocrats hold political trials when outcomes are presumed known from the start? Focusing on sub-Saharan Africa since independence, this book provides insight into the role of judiciaries in authoritarian regimes: how courts can be used to repress political challengers, institutionalize punishment, and undermine the rule of law.

Based on 300 hours of interviews with coaches, athletic directors, student-athletes, and NCAA officials, Undue Process examines the NCAA's system of "justice" -- the organization's history and its growth in power over the years, the lack of due process for its accused, its guilty-until-proven-innocent attitude, and its 100 percent conviction rate.

"This book is primarily geared toward estate planners and probate litigators, it may provide a greater understanding of issues relating to capacity, the attorney's role, and the process known as "undue influence." This book does not constitute legal advice"--

At the age of 76, Seward Johnson, the Johnson & Johnson magnate, married Barbara Piasecka, a recent Polish immigrant 42 years his junior. When he died 12 years later, she inherited his $400 million fortune after a protracted. . . legal battle with her six stepchildren. This book tells the story of the contesting of that will."

""Undue Process" raises the reader's awareness of an important constitutional issue that has yet to receive significant attention despite its impact on contemporary life, law, and society. The book analyzes how the vast expansion of private security has undermined the constitutional rights to due process and equal protection. Most analyses of the expansion of private security have focused on the way this type of security encroaches on the right to privacy. "Undue Process" moves beyond this question to examine the way in which privatized law enforcement has begun to erode America's historic commitment to equality under the law. The opening chapters of the text explain the world of private security and examine how it has rapidly expanded due to budget-conscious limits on police capacity. Additional chapters explore the public-private hybrid form of law enforcement that has emerged in America as a result, along with specific constitutional issues raised by netlaw, private prisons, and the activities of bounty hunters. "Undue Process" is well suited to political science and government courses and classes on criminal justice, constitutional law, and police procedures. Michael Norris earned his Ph.D. in political science at the University of Nevada, Reno and now teaches college-level political science courses in Texas. In addition, Dr. Norris is an award-winning investigative journalist and editor. He has written numerous articles on wide-ranging topics, including the relationship between the media and the courts, and is the author of "Reinventing the Administrative State" from University Press of America."

Undue Influence author Ron Arnold--America's premiere investigative critic of organized environmentalism--follows the money and takes you with him. In this astonishing book he explains how the environmental movement is not just the green groups we are accustomed to thinking of, but is instead an extraordinarily incestuous "iron triangle" of: wealthy foundations; grant-driven green groups, and; zealous bureaucrats; that control your future--without your knowledge or permission. Big foundations and big government give billions in grants to elitist green groups whose every effort hurts your economic future. Book jacket.