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Critical Legal Studies
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Critical race theory is a school of sociological thought and legal studies that emphasizes the socially constructed nature of race, considers judicial conclusions to be the result of the workings of power, and opposes the continuation of racial subordination. The notions of the social construction of race and discrimination are present in the writings of such established critical race theorists as Derrick Bell, Mari Matsuda, Richard Delgado, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, Gloria Ladson-Billings, and William Tate; newly emerging CRT scholars Adrienne Dixson, Celia Rousseau, and Thandeka Chapman; and some pioneers in sociology, including W.E.B. DuBois and Max Weber.
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The critical treatment of the concept of race and especially the impact of racism in the modern world has pre-dated the Critical Legal Studies approach well more than a century. Its history is isomorphic with the development of Africana thought, which began in the eighteenth century with, ironically, critical efforts to render slavery illegal. Although the African dimension of Africana thought preceded the eighteenth century, the diasporic reality created by conquest, colonization, and slavery created the conditions for the discourse on black humanity that has been a main feature of thought among the African diaspora. That discourse can be traced back to the writings of Wilhelm Amo and Quobno Cugoano where,especially in Cugoano’s work, a philosophical anthropology of freedom is advanced, and stands as the groundwork for nearly all subsequent critical discussions of race and racial oppression.1
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Critical race theory criticizes critical legal studies for its undue emphasis on class and economic structure, insisting that race is more critical. Critical race theorists consider race up front and personal. They use narrative to provide the stories that bring some understanding of the unstated assumptions of privilege. They want more than the theorist's contemplation of doctrine and principles. They want change. And they want it now.
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Critical race theory (CRT) has its origins in Critical Legal Studies (CLS) in the USA and now exists as a separate entity. There is a wealth of US-based literature on the subject. According to Delgado (1995) cited in Ladson-Billings (1998), Critical Race Theory sprang up in the mid 1970s with the early work of Derrick Bell (an African American) and Alan Freeman (a white), both of whom were deeply distressed over the slow pace of racial reform in the US (p xiii).
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A total of 18 semester hours must be completed for the Legal Studies minor. The five required courses (15 units) must be taken in residence at UC Denver. A minimum grade of C is required in each course and students must maintain a GPA of 3.0 in courses taken toward the minor. Every course taken for the minor must be upper division. Courses taken for the minor cannot serve to fill requirements of the undergraduate core, and students should check with their major department(s) to determine whether courses counted toward the Legal Studies Minor can fulfill major requirements.
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Since then CLS has steadily grown in influence and permanently changed the landscape of legal theory. Among noted CLS theorists are Roberto Mangabeira Unger, Robert W. Gordon, Morton J. Horwitz, Duncan Kennedy, and Katharine A. MacKinnon.
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Critical Legal Studies