Book Reviews
If you are interested in reviewing a book, please contact Karlé Lester at the State
Bar, P.O. Box 7158, Madison, WI 53707-7158. Or, direct dial Karlé
at (608) 250-6127. To purchase any book listed or reviewed in this
column, please contact the book's publisher or ask your local bookstore
to order it for you.
Hiring and Firing in Wisconsin
By Bradden C. Backer, Kim E. Patterson and Robert K. Sholl
(Madison, WI: State Bar CLE Books, 1996). 170+ pgs. $29 plus shipping,
tax. To order, call (800) 362-8096.
Reviewed by Peter M. Reinhardt
Hiring and Firing in Wisconsin is a welcome addition to the limited
body of literature that specifically deals with employment law issues
encountered under Wisconsin's statutory and case law. Part desktop
reference book and part legal treatise, I recommend it as a starting
place when looking for answers to questions regarding the hiring and
discharge process in Wisconsin.
The book has its origins in the three-volume Employment Law in
Wisconsin Treatise. The authors of Hiring and Firing in Wisconsin have
managed to condense much of the information on hiring and firing from
the treatise into an easy-to-use format. As a result, it is equally
valuable to an employment law specialist, general practitioner or human
resource professional.
The book is divided into two general sections. Part one, which
focuses on hiring, begins with an overview of the discriminatory hiring
practices. Subsequent chapters in the book's first section are devoted
to particular stages of the hiring process. Topics covered include
recruiting and interviews, credit reports and reference checks,
pre-employment testing and screening, and the hiring decision.
The book's second section focuses on issues frequently encountered
when ending the employment relationship. Part two begins by defining and
explaining the different types of termination and identifying
limitations on an employer's right to end the employment relationship.
Subsequent chapters in part two discuss issues to consider and analyze
before deciding to terminate an employee and types of required and
discretionary payments after termination. Part two ends by reviewing the
troublesome topic of references.
While Hiring and Firing in Wisconsin is organized in a format that is
easy to use, the book's organization is not its most distinctive
feature. What truly stands out and separates the book from other
reference materials is the authors' ability to identify legal issues
commonly encountered in the discharge and hiring process and to discuss
those issues in a succinct and understandable manner.
Each chapter in the book identifies key legal issues of which the
reader should be aware and explains and summarizes the black letter law
applicable to those issues. These summaries often are accompanied by
practical examples that illustrate how a particular legal principle has
been or may be applied to an employment law issue. In addition, the
summaries are supported by numerous footnotes to state and federal law,
including statutes, case law and code sections. The footnotes are
drafted with painstaking detail, and often contain comments regarding
the case or statute cited. Although the book's title references only
Wisconsin law, an equivalent amount of federal law is cited and
explained in the footnotes.
Many of the book's sections contain practice tips, notes, comments
and caveats. These subsections contain useful information and
suggestions, including potential traps for the unwary, that are
particularly helpful to individuals working on a day-to-day basis in
employment law. The book concludes with an appendix of guides, forms and
checklists applicable to the hiring and termination process.
Hiring and Firing in Wisconsin is a necessary and relatively
inexpensive addition to the employment law library of an employment
specialist, general practitioner or human resource professional. Unlike
most other reference books, Hiring and Firing in Wisconsin will not
gather dust.
Intellectual Property in Europe
By Guy Tritton (London: Sweet & Maxwell Ltd., 1996). 803 pgs.
Hardcover. 95. ISBN: 0 421 542306.
Reviewed by Prof. Ramon A. Klitzke
Since the first intellectual property convention in 1883, the Paris
Convention, few areas of law have been subjected to so much
international scrutiny and legislation. Europe is in a period of
astonishing development of intellectual property rights; the European
Court of Justice is busy with the interrelationship of intellectual
property rights, and Dutch courts have granted pan-European injunctions
against patent infringement.
Most domestic intellectual property laws of European Community (E.C.)
members are derived from international conventions or E.C. legislation
and differences in national intellectual property rights have diminished
immeasurably. Today's legal advisor cannot rely only upon the law of any
single jurisdiction.
As of April 1, 1996, an E.C. Trade Mark may be applied for. The
"Madrid Protocol" profoundly simplifies trademark applications and the
E.C. Commission "Trade Mark Directive" has substantially harmonized
domestic laws of member states. Other E.C. Commission directives provide
legal protection for computer programs, copyright rental, lending and
neighboring rights, harmonization of copyright terms, and satellite and
cable retransmissions. There are proposals for a community design and
database protection. The community has introduced a Community Plant
Variety Right and a Supplementary Protection Certificate for patented
pharmaceutical products. The 1991 International Convention for the
Protection of New Plant Varieties has been signed by most European
countries, but not yet ratified.
In Intellectual Property in Europe, author barrister Guy Tritton, of
London's Middle Temple, has provided lawyers and legal scholars with a
comprehensive work on European property rights. Because of the high
degree of harmonization between states, it is not a repetitious
country-by-country view of intellectual property. The book examines the
founding treaties, conventions and legislation and emphasizes any
differences between European states.
Following an introduction, the book covers European patents,
trademarks, copyrights and design protection. There are chapters on
enforcement, licensing, joint ventures, franchising and abuse of a
dominant position. Each chapter is carefully organized and ample
footnotes on each page direct the reader to numerous cases, statutes,
conventions and other important materials. Extensive tables of cases,
treaties and conventions, and E.C. regulations complete the thorough
treatment of European intellectual property law.
The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen Bank and the Idea
that is Helping the Poor to Change Their Lives
By David Bornstein (New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 1996).
350 pgs. $25. To order, call (212) 698-7000.
Reviewed by William R. Hotz
I picked up The Price of a Dream expecting a straightforward story
about the founding and growth of Grameen Bank, an institution often
thought of as the prototype "development bank." Grameen Bank has
attracted worldwide attention as an innovative for-profit institution
that makes small loans to some of the poorest of the poor, to enable
them to purchase the assets they need to build their own economic
future. As a bank lawyer with an interest in alchemy, I looked forward
to learning more about it.
I was disappointed to find myself reading something that at first
sounded more like a travelogue about rural Bangladesh and its people,
than the history of a bank. But when I finished, I realized that author
David Bornstein had skillfully delivered more than I expected.
The Price of a Dream isn't just about Grameen Bank and the vision of
Muhammad Yunus, the American-educated economist who developed the
winning combination of elements to make the bank a success in his native
Bangladesh. It's about the lives the bank has touched and the culture to
which it is adapted - with some insightful observations on antipoverty
and international development programs on the side.
Yunus' concept is a direct challenge to the "trickle-down" theory
that suggests that the best way to fight poverty is to put money in the
hands of employers and professional aid-givers. A development bank works
from the bottom up, putting money directly into the hands of the
poor.
Grameen Bank's success lies in unlocking the poor's entrepreneurial
potential by offering them a way to purchase the means of production. In
rural Bangladesh that may be a cow for a farmer, a sewing machine for a
dressmaker or inventory for a peddler. Unfortunately, in urban America
similar investment opportunities for small-scale self-employed
entrepreneurs seem more limited.
Bornstein doesn't suggest that the particular mix of elements that
has made Grameen Bank successful in rural Bangladesh will work in urban
America. However, some elements of the Grameen Bank's approach could be
part of an as-yet-to-be-determined combination of elements that leads to
an equally successful program here. For example, Grameen borrowers are
organized into small groups that meet regularly. Those groups do more
than provide training and mutual support; they help make lending
decisions and decide who will be admitted as a member of the group.
That's appropriate, because each group member is effectively a guarantor
of any loan made to a group member. Interestingly, some of those
elements were once (but are no longer) a part of the institutions that
evolved into today's credit unions and savings and loans.
Yunus' challenge to conventional wisdom is worth exploring. And The
Price of a Dream is worth reading -especially for some of us holdovers
from the '60s, who still occasionally like to think that the creative
aspects of the law can help make the world a better place.
Wisconsin Lawyer