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    CLS - Final Concept

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    SIR G.

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    CLS - Final Concept

    Uploaded by

    SIR G.
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    CLS_FINAL CONCEPT

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    4 views2 pages

    CLS - Final Concept

    Uploaded by

    SIR G.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    What is Critical Legal Study?

     It is a perspective that critiques and challenges traditional legal thought and practice,
    particularly from the perspective of political and social justice.
     The law is not a neutral or objective set of rules, but rather is shaped by power dynamics
    and the interests of dominant groups.
     The legal doctrine and systems of legal interpretation are inherently indeterminate.
     The law should be more responsive to the needs and interests of marginalized and
    oppressed groups.

    History of Critical Legal Studies


     This trend or movement was emerged in the 1970s, to be precise 1977 due to
    dissatisfaction with the existing legal theories.
     It is often associated with the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, which emphasized
    the need to critique and change society through a lens of social justice.
     It explore the ways in which legal systems are functionalist, in that they
    provide functional responses to social needs.
     Within the discipline, there are two broad schools of thought:
    1. formalism, which focuses on the historical development of legal doctrine as a
    phenomenon separate from the meeting of social needs; and
    2. realism, which explores how law is used to develop social and political policy,
    and in which law and society are bound.

    Influences
     It is influenced by the American school of law as well as by some European philosophers
    mostly Karl Marx, Max Weber, max Horkheimer, Antonio Gramsci and Michel Foucault.
    Apart from them, W. Gordon, Duncan Kennedy and The Brazilian social theorist Roberto
    Mangabeira Unger played an important role in CLS. Britain, Canada, and Australia also
    influenced Critical Legal Studies movement.
     Critical theory involves challenging the status quo through intellectual analysis.

    What do critical theorists do?


     They think about how to deal with new problems and explore emerging possibilities
    that "arise from changing historical circumstances."
     They worry about societal disinclination for deep and ethical thinking
     They decry a lack of "meaning and purpose" in modern life.
     They address power imbalances in the economy, in the government, or in law, as a way of
    reducing oppression and fostering resistance to forces that inhibit freedom for everyone.

    What does it mean to refer to legal studies as "critical"?


    According to Professor Lolita Buckner Inniss, a leading critical legal studies scholar:
    "Critical' in this sense refers to closely inquiring into the nature of a thing or idea, not
    necessarily to alter it or to undermine it, but rather to problematize it, that is, to expose vital
    questions and problems about a thing or concept."
    Characteristics of the critical legal studies (Innis, 2024)
     A problem-solving methodology that is "interdisciplinary, intersectional, (and) spectral."
     The non-adoption of "claims of universal validity" except where such adoption is "only to
    achieve a greater good for the many or to undermine structures of oppression"; and
     The rejection of "false dichotomies" and the recognition that, among multiple
    alternatives, there may be many "valid choices."

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