The Strange Career of Legal Liberalism / Laura Kalman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kalman, Laura, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Constitutional law--Philosophy--20th century--United States.

Constitutional law.

Constitutional law--History--United States.

Liberalism--Methodology--History--United States.

Liberalism.

Law--United States.

Law.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (384 p.)

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [2008]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Legal scholarship is in a state of crisis, Laura Kalman argues in this history of the most prestigious field in law studies: constitutional theory. Since the time of the New Deal, says Kalman, most law scholars have identified themselves as liberals who believe in the power of the Supreme Court to effect progressive social change. In recent years, however, new political and interdisciplinary perspectives have undermined the tenets of legal liberalism, and liberal law professors have enlisted other disciplines in the attempt to legitimize their beliefs. Such prominent legal thinkers as Cass Sunstein, Bruce Ackerman, and Frank Michelman have incorporated the work of historians into their legal theories and arguments, turning to eighteenth-century republicanism-which stressed communal values and an active citizenry-to justify their goals.Kalman, a historian and a lawyer, suggests that reliance on history in legal thinking makes sense at a time when the Supreme Court repeatedly declares that it will protect only those liberties rooted in history and tradition. There are pitfalls in interdisciplinary argumentation, she cautions, for historians' reactions to this use of their work have been unenthusiastic and even hostile. Yet lawyers, law professors, and historians have cooperated in some recent Supreme Court cases, and Kalman concludes with a practical examination of the ways they can work together more effectively as social activists.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PROLOGUE: FAITH OF OUR FATHERS

CHAPTER 1. TIMES TO REMEMBER

CHAPTER 2. "LAW AND"

CHAPTER 3. INTERLUDE: THINKING ABOUT THINKING

CHAPTER 4. CRISIS

CHAPTER 5. THE TURN To HISTORY

CHAPTER 6. LAWYERS V. HISTORIANS

CHAPTER 7. TRADING PLACES

EPILOGUE .LIBERALISM, HISTORY, AND LAW PROFESSORS

NOTES

INDEX

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9780300147308

0300147309

OCLC:

1024003236