Radical Critiques of the Law

Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. Fine with No dust jacket as issued. 1997. 1st Edition. First Printing. Soft Cover. 070060846X . Publisher's glossy wraps. An AMINTAPHIL volume. Papers from a Conference held by the American Section of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy in Allentown, PA in October, 1992. Contributors include David M. Adams, Natalie Dandekar, Emily R. Gill, Suzanne Duvall Jacobitti, Larry May, Thomas W. Simon, and many others. "The past two decades have seen an outpouring of work in legal theory that is self-consciously critical of aspects of American law and the institutions of the liberal state. In this lively volume, eminent scholars in philosophy, law, and political science respond to this recent scholarship by exploring what constitutes a radical critique of the law, examining such theories as critical legal studies, feminist theory and theories of difference, and critical race theory. The authors consider whether the critiques advanced in recent legal theory can truly be called radical and what form a radical critique of American law should take. Writing at the cutting edge of the critique of critical legal theory, they offer insights first on critical legal scholarship, then on feminist political and legal theory. A third group of contributions questions the radicalness of these approaches in light of their failure to challenge fundamental aspects of liberalism, while a final section focuses on current issues of legal reform through critical views on criminal punishment, including observations on rape and hate speech. Each major essay describes the underlying principles in the development of a radical legal theory and addresses unresolved questions relating to it, while accompanying commentaries present conflicting views. The resulting dialogue explores wide-ranging issues like equity, value relativism, adversarial and empathic legal advocacy, communitarianism and the social contract, impartiality and contingency, natural law, and corrective justice. A common thread for many of the articles is a focus on the social dimension of society and law, which finds the individualism of prevailing liberal theories too limiting. Radical Critiques of the Law is particularly unique in presenting critical and feminist approaches in one volume-along with skeptical commentary about just how radical some critiques really are. Proposing alternative critiques that embody considerably greater promise of being truly radical, it offers provocative reading for both philosophers and legal scholars by showing that many claims to radicalism are highly problematic at best.". The volume is in perfect, pristine condition; unmarked, unread, tight, square, and clean. AS NEW.. 8vo 8" - 9" tall. 337 pp .