Review by Choice Review
This collection of essays by scholars from across the ideological spectrum examines an exceedingly complex and increasingly important area of American constitutional jurisprudence: the appropriateness of state action when those laws bump up against the explicitly expressed or implicitly understood interests of the national government. The first three entries in the work provide a historical analysis of preemption since the Supreme Court first grappled with it in the 19th century through contemporary times. Following this historical examination, the five chapters at the center of the work present and analyze the dynamics of preemption in vital areas of US public policy in the contemporary era: environmental regulation, financial regulation (including insurance), food and drug policy, products liability, and cell phone regulation. The final essays in the work turn to normative questions about what the proper relationship between the states and federal government should be and how the Court should deal with conflicts in the area of preemption. Included in this final section is comparative work examining preemption in the EU. All told, this collection successfully brings insight into the muddle that is federal preemption and, as a result, is necessary for comprehensive library collections of American jurisprudence. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections. J. Barth Hendrix College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review