New Book by AUWCL Professor Examines Key Poverty Law Cases
American University Washington College of Law Professor Ezra Rosser is co-editor of a new book The Poverty Law Canon: Exploring the Major Cases (Marie Failinger & Ezra Rosser eds., Univ. of Michigan Press, 2016).
Geared towards scholars and students, the book delves into issues related to poverty and the law by taking readers into the lives of the clients and lawyers who brought critical poverty law cases in the United States. The cases examined involve access to justice, social welfare programs, public housing, due process, and rights to counsel in child support and consumer cases, among other topics.
The book is complementary to Poverty Law: Policy & Practice, a textbook Professor Rosser co-authored in 2014.
Why is the area of poverty law so important?
Professor Rosser says, “Though as a society we pretend that this is a land of equal opportunity, the birth lottery plays a tremendous role shaping and limiting the lives of far too many poor children. And the Supreme Court has often failed to protect the poor, denying them rights that the non-poor take for granted such as the right to a decent education. Fundamentally, I believe our country’s tolerance for poverty, much less extreme poverty, is a social, political, and moral failing of the highest order and I hope my work can contribute in some small way to bringing about change.”
Professor Rosser draws motivation from a variety of sources, both personal and professional. He says, “I grew up in the grey area between the lower middle class and poverty. A series of educational scholarships allowed me to “escape” and now provides my children with a life I could not have imagined, but most poor people are not as fortunate.”
In the dedication of the book, he recognizes the individuals who have inspired his work – his late father-in-law as well as his students, colleagues and mentors at AUWCL.
The book features a group of outstanding contributors, all of whom are academics who write and teach about poverty. To learn more about the book, click here.
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