Reviews of Life Without Lawyers
“2009’s most needed book on public affairs….Read Howard’s book, and weep for the death of common sense.”
—George Will, Washington Post Read full article
“[Life Without Lawyers is] crammed with telling cases, anecdotes, and data. It brims with insights into how ‘rights’ that were created to prevent ‘unfairness by those in authority’ are now ‘guaranteeing unfairness to the common good.’ ...[The book] makes a powerful case that unless leaders from outside the world of politics overpower the entrenched special interests that dominate both major political parties, even Barack Obama will have little chance of transforming Washington – and no chance at all of fixing our schools, health care, or stultifying legal culture.”
—Stuart Taylor, National Journal Magazine Read full article
“It’s essential to fix the legal system without discouraging legitimate lawsuits nor encouraging frivolous ones….[Life Without Lawyers] proffers third-way thinking that punctures both the tort reformers’ reductionism and the trial lawyers’ protectionism.”
—Dirk Olin, Portfolio.com Read full article
“Howard’s book is a withering critique not of lawyers, but of us: a nation paralyzed by fear, unwilling to assume responsibility, both overly reliant on authority and distrustful of it. Law is wielded as a weapon of intimidation rather than as an instrument of protection.”
—Alex Altman, Time Read full article
“Howard is doing something important for us because he is redefining freedom beyond the realm of the ideologues, who are, as often as not, the real and consistent enemies of our individual and national freedom.”
—Stanley Crouch, New York Daily News Read full article
“Howard regales and terrifies us with graphic descriptions of law enforcement run amok….In a world where the laws are made and enforced by lawyers (and Howard is a lawyer), we should listen.”
—Richard Foster, Financial Times Read full article
“What [Howard] insists upon is the acknowledgement that risk is part of life. Facing risk is how we learn things, how we grow up, how we achieve self-confidence.”
—Sol Schindler, Washington Times Read full article
“An intensely human affirmation of the need for personal judgment, accountability and authority to act effectively.”
—Richard Humphreys, Irish Times Read full article
“The jury is out and Life Without Lawyers is guilty of being a must read.”
—Mike Fladeland, Bismarck Tribune Read full article
“Howard…aims to restore responsibility and reliability to the American legal system for the betterment of society. He doesn’t just critique the modern legal system in America, he also offers a framework for improvement.”
—Lily-Hayes Kaufman, Forbes.com Read full article
“The fear of lawsuits has led to well-publicized absurdities….This ‘hyper legalism,’ argues Philip K. Howard in Life Without Lawyers...was the perhaps natural and inevitable by-product of the civil rights movement, necessary in its time to protect the rights of minorities. But as interpreted by lawyers and implemented by lawmakers, the law has perversely worked to create less freedom, not more….Lawmakers must think hard about the role of lawyers in America and how the law has been twisted to do the opposite of what the Framers imagined.”
—Evan Thomas, Newsweek Read full article
“In this time of financial depression and political hope, Howard may have found the perfect moment to sound his alarm.”
—Publishers Weekly Read full article
“Whether through the press or through judicial oversight, there should be unrelenting exposure of judges to public resentment of legal processes that offend common sense….Howard is helping the process by [Life Without Lawyers] and his other books, and by an organization he formed in 2002, Common Good.”
—Anthony Lewis, New York Review of Books Read full article
“Highly readable and thought-provoking….At a time when we are re-evaluating so many institutions in American life, why not the law?”
—James D. Zirin, New York Law Journal Read full article
“The rule of law is a wonderful thing, as anyone who has visited countries ruled by the whims of the powerful can attest. But you can have too much of a wonderful thing. And America has far too much law….For nearly every problem, lawmakers and bureaucrats imagine that more detailed rules are the answer. But people need to exercise their common sense, too.”
—Economist Read full article
“For those not yet convinced that America’s legal system needs reform, the accounts relayed in Life Without Lawyers will convince them.”
—David Littel, The Objective Standard Read full article (Subscription Required)
“What makes [Life Without Lawyers] much better than its predecessor is not the hair-raising series of examples he presents, but rather his perceptive accounting of the costs of all this, of what is lost by the encroachment of too much law into too many aspects of our lives. What is lost is liberty.”
—Richard E. Morgan, Claremont Review of Books Read full article (pdf)
“Howard argues that Americans are slowly being choked to death by law. We churn out more than 70,000 pages of new rules in the federal register each year, and the proportion of lawyers in the workforce has nearly doubled between 1970 and 2000.”
—Dahlia Lithwick, Slate Read full article
“[Howard] does not simply complain that schools are not teaching, but he has specific ideas, coupled with examples of where they seem to have worked, of how freeing teachers and administrators from what he sees as a tyranny of rules can lead to better decisions and doing better by our students.”
—Alan Morrison, National Law Journal Read full article
“Life Without Lawyers is like a legal complaint [brought on behalf of] that large and identifiable part of America culturally committed to the proposition that they (and everybody else) should bear more of their own risks, be bound more firmly by both their legal and non-legal relationships, sue and be sued less, and call in the lawyers as a last resort and not a first instinct.”
—Charles N. W. Keckler Read full article (pdf)
Endorsements of Life Without Lawyers
“Philip Howard’s Life Without Lawyers hits the nail on the head – incoherent legalities stultify necessary change and frustrate attempts to use common sense in solving the problems that face our country. This is a real wake-up call from one of America’s finest public minds.”
—former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley
“Life Without Lawyers is a refreshing dose of common sense for legal reform. But beyond lamenting what is wrong, Howard presents a must-read, inspirational vision of a system where freedom, decision making and judgment are restored to the individual.”
—former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich
“Howard asks questions that cut to the core of our civil society, questions that have the potential to build consensus among Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike. He offers valuable, big-picture ideas for how we can solve entrenched problems – especially a broken health care system and failing public schools – and rescue America from a political culture that is undermining our national greatness.”
—Mayor Michael Bloomberg
“Philip Howard explains with clarity, grace, and insight how courts and regulators have narrowed the freedom of doctors, teachers, public officials, and many others. This is a thoughtful plea for common sense, and a practical plan to achieve a better balance.”
—former president of Harvard University Derek Bok
“Life Without Lawyers is fabulous, a tour de force. This book promises to change the vocabulary of legal discourse – from people pounding the table for their own rights to restoring balance for all of society. Reviving Americans’ can-do spirit and retaining incentives for continued innovation in both the public and private sectors requires rebuilding coherent boundaries of law and authority. Otherwise people go through the day looking over their shoulders instead of doing what’s needed to get the job done.”
—Robert E. Litan, Kauffman Foundation and Brookings Institution
“Howard makes an important case for reining in lawsuit abuse, cutting way back on bureaucracy, and restoring both authority and personal responsibility to teachers, principals, trial judges, and other people in what should be decision-making positions. In short, it’s more good old-fashioned common sense in a world too short on that virtue.”
—Quin Hillyer, senior editor of American Spectator
