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A Critique of Adjudication: Fin de Siècle
A major statement from one of the foremost legal theorists of our day, this book offers a penetrating look into the political nature of legal, and especially judicial, decision making. It is also the first sustained attempt to integrate the American approach to law, an uneasy balance of deep commitment and intense skepticism, with the Continental tradition in social theory, philosophy, and psychology.
At the center of this work is the question of how politics affects judicial activity-and how, in turn, lawmaking by judges affects American politics. Duncan Kennedy considers opposing views about whether law is political in character and, if so, how. He puts forward an original, distinctive, and remarkably lucid theory of adjudication that includes accounts of both judicial rhetoric and the experience of judging. With an eye to the current state of theory, legal or otherwise, he also includes a provocative discussion of postmodernism.
Ultimately concerned with the practical consequences of ideas about the law, A Critique of Adjudication explores the aspects and implications of adjudication as few books have in this century. As a comprehensive and powerfully argued statement of a critical position in modern American legal thought, it will be essential to any balanced picture of the legal, political, and cultural life of our nation.
At the center of this work is the question of how politics affects judicial activity-and how, in turn, lawmaking by judges affects American politics. Duncan Kennedy considers opposing views about whether law is political in character and, if so, how. He puts forward an original, distinctive, and remarkably lucid theory of adjudication that includes accounts of both judicial rhetoric and the experience of judging. With an eye to the current state of theory, legal or otherwise, he also includes a provocative discussion of postmodernism.
Ultimately concerned with the practical consequences of ideas about the law, A Critique of Adjudication explores the aspects and implications of adjudication as few books have in this century. As a comprehensive and powerfully argued statement of a critical position in modern American legal thought, it will be essential to any balanced picture of the legal, political, and cultural life of our nation.
- GenresLawNonfiction
448 pages, Paperback
First published May 15, 1997
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August 12, 2022
I want so much to give this a four star but really can't.
It's warmed over hegelian idealism; the marxist elements are watered down and filtered through Claude Levi-Strauss, who basically applied some aspects of marxist thinking to mythology enabling usage of marxist terms in a coded fashion.
I know the book is intended to be an idealist (in the noetic sense) criticism of liberal judicial interpretation but it really falls apart because in the end people want foreseeable laws, not judicial diktat. They want and even need legal certainty. So noetic idealism and judicial command fail.
This is most clearly seen in a recent U.S. Sup. Ct. Case which reaffirms textual and historic interpretation, and discounts judicial fiat.
Kennedy would have and still could bring out his understandings of Savigny to try to create a copula for his life's work.
It's worth reading, but critically, self-criticism is most important. I don't regard it as a blueprint for the future or even an effective critique of the present. More or less the strict segregations whether racial or gender that formed Kennedy's early career having been outmoded in part because of his works and works like his leave him facing a world for which any marxist or even marx based critique is inapt.
Alternatively, he could try to mesh his works into PRC/CCP thinking about law, but I don't think he will.
Do read it! Maybe I am wrong! Though, to me, it's an ovestimation of the power of ideology/superstructure and moral and epistemological subjectivism which explains the limitation of critical legal studies since the end of the cold war.
Great book, but caveat lector!
It's warmed over hegelian idealism; the marxist elements are watered down and filtered through Claude Levi-Strauss, who basically applied some aspects of marxist thinking to mythology enabling usage of marxist terms in a coded fashion.
I know the book is intended to be an idealist (in the noetic sense) criticism of liberal judicial interpretation but it really falls apart because in the end people want foreseeable laws, not judicial diktat. They want and even need legal certainty. So noetic idealism and judicial command fail.
This is most clearly seen in a recent U.S. Sup. Ct. Case which reaffirms textual and historic interpretation, and discounts judicial fiat.
Kennedy would have and still could bring out his understandings of Savigny to try to create a copula for his life's work.
It's worth reading, but critically, self-criticism is most important. I don't regard it as a blueprint for the future or even an effective critique of the present. More or less the strict segregations whether racial or gender that formed Kennedy's early career having been outmoded in part because of his works and works like his leave him facing a world for which any marxist or even marx based critique is inapt.
Alternatively, he could try to mesh his works into PRC/CCP thinking about law, but I don't think he will.
Do read it! Maybe I am wrong! Though, to me, it's an ovestimation of the power of ideology/superstructure and moral and epistemological subjectivism which explains the limitation of critical legal studies since the end of the cold war.
Great book, but caveat lector!
Displaying 1 of 1 review