Intended for non-lawyers, non-U.S. lawyers and students, graduate and undergraduate students, as well as U.S. law students and professionals, this book is designed as a flexible, modular tool to provide a unique and comprehensive introduction to the legal system and law of the United States through succinct and cogent notes as well as excerpts from both famous cases and recent cases. The second edition of this book provides an easy to understand yet comprehensive survey of American law. This edition presents five different perspectives on the law:


(1) Historical perspective;
(2) Public Law perspectives;
(3) Private Law perspectives;
(4) Process and Procedure;
(5) Legal reasoning and jurisprudence


The reader may emphasize any or all of these perspectives and select among the autonomous and modular sections or chapters to cover, providing for a variety of syllabi and approaches from this book. The book also features problems and exercises among the materials to facilitate learning and further allow teachers to shape instruction they way they see fit.