The Law As It Could Be gathers Fiss's most important work on procedure, adjudication and public reason, introduced by the author and including contextual introductions for each piece--some of which are among the most cited in Twentieth Century legal studies. Fiss surveys the legal terrain between the landmark cases of Brown v. Board of Education and Bush v. Gore to reclaim the legal legacy of the Civil Rights Movement. He argues forcefully for a vision of judges as instruments of public reason and of the courts as a means of shaping society in the image of the Constitution. In building his argument, Fiss attends to topics as diverse as the use of the injunction to restructure social institutions; how law and economics have misunderstood the role of the judge; why the movement seeking alternatives to adjudication fails to serve the public interest; and why Bush v. Gore was not the constitutional crisis some would have us believe. In so doing, Fiss reveals a vision of adjudication that vindicates the public reason on which Brown v. Board of Education was founded.

欧文·费斯（OwenFiss）是耶鲁大学斯特林法学教授。他1959年从达特茅斯学院本科毕业后赴牛津大学深造两年．获哲学学士学位，后就读于哈佛大学法学院，1964年毕业。他曾在1965年担任联邦最高法院威廉·布伦南大法官的法官助理，1966-1968年担任美国司法部民权署特别助理。