Justice and Injustice in Law and Legal Theory

182 Pages·1996·12.88 MB·English

by  Austin Sarat, Thomas R. Kearns

Justice and Injustice in Law and Legal Theory
TheAmherstSeriesinLaw,Jurisprudence,and SocialThought
EachworkincludedinTheAmherstSeriesinLaw,Jurisprudence,andSocial
Thoughtexploresa themecrucialtoanunderstandingoflawasitconfronts
thechangingsocialandintellectualcurrentsofthelatetwentiethcentury.
TheFateofLaw, editedbyAustinSaratandThomasR. Kearns
Law's Violence, editedbyAustinSaratandThomasR. Kearns
Lawin EverydayLife,editedbyAustinSaratandThomasR. Kearns
The RhetoricofLaw,editedbyAustinSaratandThomasR. Kearns
Identities, Politics, andRights,editedbyAustinSaratand
ThomasR. Kearns
LegalRights:HistoricalandPhilosophicalPerspectives,editedby
AustinSaratand ThomasR. Kearns
JusticeandInjusticein LawandLegalTheory, editedbyAustinSarat
and ThomasR. Kearns
Lawin the DomainsofCulture, editedbyAustinSaratand
ThomasR. Kearns
Cultural Pluralism, IdentityPolitics,andtheLaw, editedbyAustinSarat
and ThomasR. Kearns
Justice and Injustice in
Law and Legal Theory
Edited by
Austin Sarat and Thomas R. Kearns
AnnArbor
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PREss
Firstpaperbackedition1998
Copyright©bytheUniversityofMichigan1996
Allrightsreserved
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaby
TheUniversityofMichiganPress
ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
§ Printedonacid-freepaper
2001 2000 1999 1998 432 1
Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,or
transmittedinanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical,orotherwise,
withoutthewrittenpermissionofthepublisher.
AelPcatalogrecordfor thisbookisavailablefrom theBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Justiceandinjusticeinlawandlegaltheory / editedbyAustin
SaratandThomasR.Kearns.
p. cm.- (Amherstseriesinlaw,jurisprudence,andsocial
thought)
Includesindex.
ISBN0-472-09625-7(cloth:acid-freepaper).- ISBN
0-472-06625-0 (pbk:acid-freepaper)
1.Law-UnitedStates. 2.Law-Philosophy. 3.Justice.
I.Sarat,Austin. II. Keams,ThomasR. III.Series.
KF210.J87 1996
340'.I-dc20 96-9973
CIP
ISBN 978-0-472-02368-4 (electronic)
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to our colleagues Lawrence Douglas and Martha
Umphrey,withwhomwesharea commitmentto thecontinued devel
opmentoflawas asubjectofstudyin the liberal arts.JusticeandInjus
tice in Lawand Legal Theory is the subjectofa coursetaughtbyThomas
Kearns. We thank the students in thatcourse for their invigorating in
terestinmanyoftheissuestakenup inthisvolume. Finally,wewould
liketoexpressspecialappreciationtotheKeckandArthurViningDavis
Foundationsfor their generousfinancialsupport.

Contents
LegalJusticeandInjustice: TowardaSituated
Perspective
Thomas R. Kearns andAustinSarat
1
TheInjusticeofPolicing: Prehistoryand Rectitude
Michael Taussig 19
UndoingHistoricalInjustice
Robert W. Gordon 35
JusticeforAll?MarriageandDeprivationof
CitizenshipintheUnitedStates
NancyF. Cott 77
Freedom,Equality,Pornography
Joshua Cohen 99
JudicialSupremacy,theConceptofLaw,andthe
SanctityofLife
Frank1.Michelman
Contributors
Index

Legal Justice and Injustice:
Toward a Situated Perspective
Thomas R. Kearns and Austin Sarat
Didsomeonesayjusticewaspossible?
-ThomasKennan,"DeconstructionandtheImpossibility
ofJustice"
Running throughout the historyofjurisprudenceand legal theory is a
recurring concern about the connections between law and justice and
aboutthewayslawisimplicatedininjustice.CommentatorsfromPlatol
toDerrida2havecalledlawtoaccountinthenameofjustice,askedthat
lawprovidealanguageofjustice,anddemandedthatitpromote,inso
faraspossible,theattainmentofajustsociety.Theyhavedoneso,how
ever,inrelentlesslyabstractandgenerallanguage,asifthedemandsof
justice could only be apprehended accurately outside of history and
context, and as ifonlyphilosophers were fit to engageinconversation
aboutjustice. The justice that is spoken about is, as a result, elusive, if
notillusory,and disconnectedfrom theembodiedpracticesoflaw.
The essays collectedinJustice and Injustice in Lawand Legal Theory
seektoremedythissituationbyembeddinginquiryaboutjusticeinan
examinationoflaw'sdailypractices,itsinstitutionalarrangements,and
its engagement with particular issues at particular moments in time.3
1.See,forexample,Plato'sRepublic,trans.G.M.A.Grube,rev.C.D.C.Reeve(In
dianapolis:HackettPublishingCo.,1992),BooksIandIV,especially.
2.JacquesDerrida,"ForceofLaw:'TheMysticalFoundationofAuthority,"'Cardozo
LawReview11(1990):919.
3.Wehaveexploredsomeofthesethemesinanearliervolumeinthisseries. See
AustinSaratandThomasR.Kearns,LawinEverydayLife(AnnArbor:UniversityofMichi
ganPress,1993).