Critical legal studies

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Critical legal studies (English: critical jurisprudence ) is a movement in the philosophy of law / legal theory and sociology of law which are sold by the methods of Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School similar approaches to the legal system applies. CLS and Crit are abbreviations that are used informally to refer to the movement and its followers.

history

Although the informal origins of critical legal studies can probably be traced back to the 1960s, the movement crystallized in 1977 at a conference at the University of Wisconsin – Madison . Many representatives of the movement entered American law schools in the late 1960s and 1970s , where they applied ideas from Karl Marx , Herbert Marcuse , Theodor Adorno, and others to the study of law. The critical legal studies movement flourished in the United States in the 1980s. Its influence as an independent movement that identifies itself as such has declined again since the early 1990s.

Ideas

Although Critical legal studies , like most schools of thought, is not a monolithic block, some of the ideas characteristic of its adherents can be distinguished. This includes:

  • The idea that written law does not necessarily determine the outcome of legal proceedings, which is or was the cause of the so-called indeterminacy debate in legal theory ;
  • The idea that legal rules and institutions are related to the maintenance of power and wealth and therefore disadvantage the poor and the oppressed, especially the working class, women, homosexuals and non-white people.
  • The idea that the structure of legal rules reflects fundamental contradictions between selfish interests and altruism .

criticism

Many conservative and liberal legal scholars are very critical of the critical legal studies movement. Conservative critics argue that the radical nature of the movement is incompatible with the goals of legal education. Left-wing critics see the problem rather in an increasing dilution of the movement, which originally contained radical elements.

influence

Many of the ideas associated with critical legal studies continue to influence law in the United States. Related schools of thought, such as feminist legal theory and critical race theory , continue to play an important role in law.

literature

  • Richard W. Bauman: Critical legal studies. A guide to the literature , Westview Press, Boulder, Colo. 1996
  • Richard W. Bauman: Ideology and community in the first wave of critical legal studies , University of Toronto Press, Toronto u. a. 2002
  • Susanne Beck, Jan-Christoph Marschelke: Critical Legal Studies . In: Eric Hilgendorf, Jan C. Joerden (Hrsg.): Handbuch Rechtssphilosophie . JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-476-02433-6 , pp. 284-290 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-476-05309-1 .
  • Herbert Euler: Interpretation of the American Constitution by the Critical Legal Studies Movement . Cuvillier, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-89873-075-1 (Zugl .: Göttingen, Univ., Diss., 2000).
  • Günter Frankenberg : Partisans of legal criticism: Critical Legal Studies etc. , in: Sonja Buckel, Ralph Christensen, Andreas Fischer-Lescano (eds.): New Theories of Law . Stuttgart 2006. ISBN 3-8282-0331-0 . Pp. 97-116.
  • Janet E. Halley, Wendy Brown (Eds.): Left Legalism / Left Critique-P , Duke University Press 2003
  • Duncan Kennedy: Legal Education and the Reproduction of Hierarchy. A Polemic Against the System. A Critical Edition . New York University Press 2004
  • Duncan Kennedy, Karl E. Klare: A Bibliography of Critical Legal Studies . In: The Yale Law Journal . tape 94 , no. 2 , 1984, ISSN  0044-0094 , pp. 461-490 , JSTOR : 796234 .
  • Anja Oberkofler: Critical Approaches in American Legal Thought (PDF; 116 kB) . In: UTOPIE Kreativ. H. 132 (October 2001), pp. 925-934 (accessed February 18, 2013).
  • Calvin Trillin: A reporter at large: Harvard law . March 26, 1984, ISSN  0028-792X , p. 53 ( newyorker.com ).
  • Roberto Mangabeira Unger : The critical legal studies movement. Another time, a greater task . Verso, London 2015, ISBN 978-1-78168-339-2 (first edition by Harvard University Press, 1986).
  • Calvin Woodard: Toward a 'Super Liberal State' . In: The New York Times . November 23, 1986, ISSN  0362-4331 ( nytimes.com ).
Conference proceedings
  • Critical Legal Studies Symposium . In: Peter Gabel, Duncan Kennedy (Eds.): Stanford Law Review . tape 36 , no. 1/2 , January 1, 1984, OCLC 11232637 , JSTOR : i252683 (English).

Web links