Posted on 08/22/2022 5:04:30 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
Side Note by Rooster: I post this because I just came across a reference to CLT by Victor Davis Hanson HERE (article posted at FR).
Though some Freepers may be quite familiar with it, I was not (and I have made a careful study of Critical Race Theory over the years). I thought other Freepers might appreciate the heads-up re: this matter.
Critical Legal Theory
Overview
Critical legal studies (CLS) is a theory which states that the law is necessarily intertwined with social issues, particularly stating that the law has inherent social biases. Proponents of CLS believe that the law supports the interests of those who create the law. As such, CLS states that the law supports a power dynamic which favors the historically privileged and disadvantages the historically underprivileged. CLS finds that the wealthy and the powerful use the law as an instrument for oppression in order to maintain their place in hierarchy. Many in the CLS movement want to overturn the hierarchical structures of modern society and they focus on the law as a tool in achieving this goal.
History
CLS was officially started in 1977 at the conference at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but its roots extend earlier to when many of its founding members participated in social activism surrounding the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War. The founders of CLS borrowed from non-legal fields such as social theory, political philosophy, economics, and literary theory. Among noted CLS theorists are Roberto Mangabeira Unger, Robert W. Gordon, and Duncan Kennedy.
Influences
Although CLS has been largely contained within the United States, it was influenced to a great extent by European philosophers, such as Karl Marx, Max Weber, Max Horkheimer, Antonio Gramsci, and Michel Foucault. CLS has borrowed heavily from Legal Realism, the school of legal thought that flourished in the 1920s and 1930s. Like CLS scholars, legal realists rebelled against accepted legal theories of the day and urged the legal field to pay more attention to the social context of the law.
Subgroups
CLS includes several subgroups with fundamentally different, even contradictory, views. Feminist legal theory examines the role of gender in the law. Critical race theory (CRT) examines the role of race in the law. Postmodernism is a critique of the law influenced by developments in literary theory, and it emphasizes political economy and the economic context of legal decisions and issues.
All of those Marxist movements have roots in the Fankfurt School in the late 1920’s - early 1930’s.
Critical Theory that “social inquiry ought to combine rather than separate the poles of philosophy and the social sciences.
Critical Race theory, Critical Economic theory, Critical Class theory, Critical Legal theory, etc. are just retreads of each other applied to different fields.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory/
Wilhelm Hegel laughs loudly from the grave.
Oh please.
Oh please, what?
Thx for that link. Will read it all later.
Marxist critical theory bump.
The problem with the CLS critique is that these observations should be just as true of a Marxist system as of ours, it’s just that the people in power are different. In that case, why should we move to Marxism? CLS has a critique but offers no affirmative theory of what is good.
It has been around for a long time. All law students in the major law schools have to take the CLT course. It is a course on how to use the Law to destroy the Law and Constitution. It has been around long enough that many of our judges have graduated from that class and many of those have put it to use.
Wish you well, Fren
That’s where critical theory started.
Thx. I did not know that.
“Critical” anything is just another hate-whitey scheme. In this case it looks to demonize Judeo Christian law. Perhaps JC law could be seen as a social construct, too.
“ Did you know that Critical Theory was being pushed in some law schools? I didn’t.”
I did not know that. Somehow this does not surprise me. There will continue to be big money in the hate-whitey industry for some time to come.
Thanks for your update, Rooster.
I did not realize that Critical Legal Studies began in 1977. I was thinking closer to 1990.
Academically, Critical Race Theory also began in Sociology and Literature departments in that same 1977 time period.
My own perspective on CRT is that after billions of dollars of federal aid and more than a decade of racial quotas completely failed to make any impact on Black and Hispanic achievement, intellectuals on the Political Left needed to come up with a new excuse for Black and Hispanic failures.
Thx.
I thought it started in the Frankfurt School.
Be careful how we define CRT and CLT.
Saying it is Marxist is partially true, but the supporters will say Marxism was inherently racist as well.
You see, CRT and CLT are all out OUTCOMES. If the system results in different outcomes for different people, then it must have some inherent bias, racism, sexism, etc.
By using this tactic, they can say that Marxism failed because it did not address the inherent racism and sexism in those systems because they were designed and led by old white men.
CRT and CLT allow the proponents to claim it is a system that has never been tried before and all others were flawed, including Marxism, socialism, Mao-ism, etc, etc, etc.
Do not fall for the trap.
CRT and CLT are where you trade your current capitalism and individual liberty for a small group that claims they have your best interests at heart and who will ensure nobody has an advantage. Outcomes will be all the same for everyone.
You will have nothing and you will be happy.
Yes, CRT/CLT is the WEF in disguise.
Marxist Lawfare
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