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Critical Legal Studies: Law
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Critical legal studies refers to a movement in legal thought that applied methods similar to those critical theory (the Frankfurt School) to law. The abbreviations "CLS" and "Crit" are sometimes used informally to refer to the movement and its adherents.
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This two day conference features serveral lectures with discussion on topics engaged by the critical race theory movement in legal studies. Developed out of a dissatisfaction with the intellectual and political limitations of traditional civil rights discourse, critical race theory seeks to understand the historical, theoretical and cultural machinery that joins the law to racial oppression. Adopting alternative approaches and theoretical strategies, the critical race theory movement does not merely desire to understand the complex bond of law and racial power but seeks to change. Featured speakers and participants include keynote speaker Kendall Thomas, Columbia University Law; Bob Chang, Loyola Law; Frank Valdes and Elizabeth Iglesias, University of Miami Law School.
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A self-conscious group of legal scholars founded the Conference on Critical Legal Studies (CLS) in 1977. Most of them had been law students in the 1960s and early 1970s, and had been involved with the civil rights movement, Vietnam protests, and the political and cultural challenges to authority that characterized that period. These events seemed to contradict the assumption that American law was fundamentally just and the product of historical progress; instead, law seemed a game heavily loaded to favor the wealthy and powerful. But these events ... suggested that grassroots activists and lawyers could produce social change.
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The following article provides a brief synopsis on one of the domains of the legal studies, known as the critical legal studies. By the term “legal”, it is evident that the concerned domain is related to a theory or a movement, which is established upon law, official or accepted rules and regulations. The discipline of legal studies comprises of the decrees, which are formulated in order to maintain the regime in the country and eliminate the traces of injustice. However, the politicians to sustain their chain of command may ... use them.
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Despite the indeterminacy of legal doctrine, critical theorists argue that actual judges and legislatures produce predictable results. Using historical, socioeconomic, and psychological analyses, the scholars try to unearth these predictable patterns and relate them to larger patterns of power and privilege. Thus, Morton Horwitz argued that 19th century American courts changed legal rules to spur economic competition and assist the mercantile elite’s search for power and wealth.. Joseph Singer recounts how 19th and 20th century courts remade property rules to permit owners to exclude people from access to commercial and other enterprises precisely as social struggles for racial inclusion grew.. Feminist legal theorists document how traditional privacy protections for families preserved patterns of male dominance, but legal reforms perpetuated the deeper structures that assign altruism to the home and selfish competitivism in the marketplace, all disguised under pictures of natural differences between the public and private spheres. Alan Freeman advanced the view that law reforms aimed at racial discrimination consistently implemented the perspective of perpetrators rather than the perspective of victims.
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Professor Cooper's main areas of research are feminist political theory, local government, religion and socio-legal studies. In particular, her work has explored excessive governance, state radicalism, and a normative radical politics. Professor Cooper's teaching interests are Public Law II, Women and the Law, and Legal Method. Works include "And You Can't Find Me Nowhere": Relocating Identity and Structure Within Equality Jurisprudence(2000) 27 Journal of Law and Society 249; Institutional Illegality and Disobedience: Local Government Narratives(1996) 16 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 255-274; Sexing the City: Lesbian and Gay Politics within the Activist State (Rivers Oram, 1994); Power in Struggle: Feminism, Sexuality and the State (Open University/ New York University Press, 1995); Governing Out of Order: Space, Law and the Politics of Belonging (Rivers Oram Press, 1998).
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