Charles F. Abel

This is the first major theoretical advance in studies of justice since Walzer. Public Administration has been almost exclusively a field for professionals, its academic component concerned with such empirical matters as training practitioners, evaluating models, and assembling a body of evidence within which to test assumptions. The growth of theoretical examinations of the field itself has been a relatively recent development. ""Justice and Public Administration"" is an ambitious effort to grapple with justice as a theoretical component of the practice of public administration, yet with sufficient theoretical power to be meaningful in philosophy, political studies, and sociology. The time is ripe for such an effort, as the questions that gather under the labels of modernity, the postmodern, and critical theory now transcend a single discipline. The work of John Rawls on justice in public life has had a generation of influence on scholarship, and this work seems to have a high degree of likelihood of making meaningful statements on these questions in the field.

When is a political trial good or bad in terms of responsible governance and fairness to individuals or groups? Professors Abel and Marsh define, evaluate, and justify the usefulness of various kinds of political trials, going back through history to answer these questions in practical terms. They point to basic assumptions and various theoretical approaches and assess specific court practices and cases, while showing real dangers and opportunities that have been part of our history. They cover cases involving the establishment and free exercise clauses of the Constitution, including privacy, religious, medical, bioethical, and health-care issues that are of major concern today. This history is important to political scientists, legal scholars, lawyers, historians, and others concerned with civil rights.