Against the law / Paul F. Campos, Pierre Schlag, Steven D. Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Campos, Paul F.

Contributor:

Schlag, Pierre.

Smith, Steven D. (Steven Douglas), 1952-

Series:

Constitutional conflicts.

Constitutional conflicts

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jurisprudence--United States.

Jurisprudence.

Law--Study and teaching--United States.

Law.

Law--United States--Interpretation and construction.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (289 p.)

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 1996.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

A fundamental critique of American law and legal thought, Against the Law consists of a series of essays written from three different perspectives that coalesce into a deep criticism of contemporary legal culture. Paul F. Campos, Pierre Schlag, and Steven D. Smith challenge the conventional representations of the legal system that are articulated and defended by American legal scholars. Unorthodox, irreverent, and provocative, Against the Law demonstrates that for many in the legal community, law has become a kind of substitute religion—an essentially idolatrous practice composed of systematic self-misrepresentation and self-deception.Linked by a persistent inquiry into the nature and identity of “the law,” these essays are informed by the conviction that the conventional representations of law, both in law schools and the courts, cannot be taken at face value—that the law, as commonly conceived, makes no sense. The authors argue that the relentlessly normative prescriptions of American legal thinkers are frequently futile and, indeed, often pernicious. They also argue that the failure to recognize the role that authorship must play in the production of legal thought plagues both the teaching and the practice of American law. Ranging from the institutional to the psychological and metaphysical deficiencies of the American legal system, the depth of criticism offered by Against the Law is unprecedented.In a departure from the nearly universal legitimating and reformist tendencies of American legal thought, this book will be of interest not only to the legal academics under attack in the book, but also to sociologists, historians, and social theorists. More particularly, it will engage all the American lawyers who suspect that there is something very wrong with the nature and direction of their profession, law students who anticipate becoming part of that profession, and those readers concerned with the status of the American legal system.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

A Heterodox Catechism

WAITING FOR LANGDELL I

Normativity and the Politics of Form

Nonsense and Natural Law

Against Constitutional Theory

WAITING FOR LANGDELL II

Idolatry in Constitutional Interpretation

Secular Fundamentalism

WAITING FOR LANGDELL III

Clerks in the Maze

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [237]-270) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780822318415

0822318415

9780822396055

082239605X

OCLC:

896861964