In a society in which courts, and hence lawyers, have achieved extraordinary power, it is not surprising that the discipline of law is contentious and controversial. In A Student's Guide to the Study of Law, Gerard V. Bradley, professor of law at the University of Notre Dame Law School and an expert in the areas of constitutional law and law and religion, introduces readers to the major concepts, cases, and thinkers that have shaped American legal scholarship and history. He also helps readers better understand what, at bottom, is at stake in the different understandings of the nature of law that drive many of our national debates.