BOOK REVIEW: Poverty Law, Policy, and Practice

Abstract

What should law students learn about poverty and its relationship to law? What is the doctrinal or theoretical subject matter that justifies a separate course in law and poverty? Are there laws and legal issues that specifically or uniquely relate to people living in poverty? Does law play a role in creating and maintaining poverty? Can law reduce or even eliminate poverty? Do lawyers have the ability and professional responsibility as lawyers to challenge poverty and to address legal problems of poor people that are consequences of poverty? What prompts these questions, and others, is the publication of the first new law school textbook on law and poverty in nearly two decades. The editors- Juliet Brodie, Clare Pastore, Ezra Rosser, and Jeffrey Selbin-are four law professors who have devoted their teaching careers and scholarship to policy and practice relating to poverty and the poor.