Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-wxhwt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T19:10:14.594Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Evaluating Legality: Toward a Cultural Approach to the Study of Law and Social Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Idit Kostiner
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The role of law in social change has been a subject of many academic debates. However, not much attention has been given to the contradictory ways in which activists for social change justify or criticize the use of law. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 25 social justice activists, I analyze the ways in which activists evaluate the role of law in social change. I find that activists invoke three distinct schemas of evaluation: instrumental, political, and cultural. The instrumental schema emphasizes change in the allocation of concrete resources; the political schema views change as the empowerment of marginalized communities; and the cultural schema emphasizes the transformation of assumptions that are shared by all members of society. Each schema provides activists with a particular order of justification that enables them to justify or to criticize the role of law in social change. While the multiplicity of schemas sustains the commonsense notion of law as a means for social change, it also accounts for possible changes in this notion.

Type
Of General Interest
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , June 2003 , pp. 323 - 368
Copyright
© 2003 Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to thank the activists who gave generously of their time to participate in this study and shared their thoughts and experiences with me. I also wish to thank a number of people who read and commented on earlier drafts of this article, including Mark Antaki, Hadar Aviram, Amir Banbaji, Lauren Edelman, Yuval Feldman, Kaaryn Gustafson, Mark Harris, Susan Silbey, Shai Lavi, Kristin Luker, Laura Beth Nielsen, Joseph Sanders, Ronen Shamir, Ben Steiner, Ann Swidler, Omri Yadlin, and the anonymous reviewers from Law & Society Review. I presented earlier versions of this article at the Law and Society Association Annual Meeting 2002 and at the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University, and I am grateful to the participants in these conferences for their useful suggestions. Thanks also to the Institute of Industrial Relations and to the Center for the Study of Law and Society, both at the University of California, Berkeley, for providing generous research grants that made this study possible.

References

References

Becker, Theodore L., & Feeley, Malcolm M., eds. (1973) The Impact of Supreme Court Decisions, 2d ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Bohannon, Paul (1965) The Differing Realms of Law,” 67 American Anthropologist 33–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boltanski, Luc, & Thévenot, Laurent (1987) Les économies de la grandeur. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Boltanski, Luc, & Thévenot, Laurent (1991) De la justification. Les économies de la grandeur. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Boltanski, Luc, & Thévenot, Laurent (1999) “The Sociology of Critical Capacity,” 2 European J. of Social Theory 359–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Canon, Bradley C., & Johnson, Charles A. (1999) Judicial Policies: Implementation and Impact, 2d ed. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crenshaw, Kimberlé (1988) “Race, Reform and Retrenchment: Transformation and Legitimation in Antidiscrimination Law,” 101 Harvard Law Rev. 1331–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Peggy C. (1997) “Performing Interpretation: A Legacy of Civil Rights Lawyering in Brown v. Board of Education,” in Sarat, A., ed., Race, Law and Culture: Reflection on Brown v. Board of Education. New York and Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
De Toqueville, Alexis (1956) Democracy in America, Vol. 1. Bowen, F., ed. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Delgado, Richard (1987) “The Ethereal Scholars: Does Critical Legal Studies Have What Minorities Want?,” 22 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Rev. 301–22.Google Scholar
Dodier, Nicolas (1993) “Action as a Combination of ‘Common Worlds’,” 26 New England Law Rev. 731–49.Google Scholar
Ewick, Patricia, & Silbey, Susan S. (1992) “Conformity, Contestation, and Resistance: An Account of Legal Consciousness,” 26 New England Law Rev. 731–49.Google Scholar
Ewick, Patricia, & Silbey, Susan S. (1998) The Common Place of Law: Stories from Everyday Life. Chicago and London: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feeley, Malcolm M. (1992) “Hollow Hopes, Flypaper, and Metaphors,” 17 Law & Social Inquiry 745–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, Alan (1988) “Racism, Rights and the Quest for Equality of Opportunity: A Critical Legal Essay,” 23 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Rev. 295–392.Google Scholar
Freeman, Alan (1990) “Antidiscrimination Law: The View from 1989,” in Kairys, D., ed., The Politics of Law: A Progressive Critique. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Friedman, Laurence M. (1990) The Republic of Choice: Law, Authority, and Culture. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, Laurence M. (1997) “Brown in Context,” in Sarat, A., ed., Race, Law and Culture: Reflection on Brown v. Board of Education. New York and Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Gabel, Peter (1982) “Reification and Legal Reasoning,” in Beirne, P. & Quinney, R., eds., Marxism and the Law. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Gabel, Peter (1984) “The Phenomenology of Rights-Consciousness and the Pact of Withdrawn Selves,” 62 Texas Law Rev. 1563–99.Google Scholar
Gabel, Peter, & Kennedy, Duncan (1984) “Roll Over Beethoven,” Stanford Law Rev. 1–55.Google Scholar
Galanter, Marc (1974) “Why the ‘Haves’ Come Out Ahead: Speculations of the Limits of Legal Change,” 9 Law & Society Rev. 95–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gramsci, Antonio (1971) Selection from the Prison Notebooks. Hoare, Q. & Smith, G. Nowell, eds. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Hunt, Alan (1990) “Rights and Social Movements: Counter-Hegemonic Strategies,” 17 J. of Law & Society Review 309–28.Google Scholar
Johnson, Charles A., & Canon, Bradley C. (1984) Judicial Policies: Implementation and Impact. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.Google Scholar
Kairys, David, ed. (1990) The Politics of Law: A Progressive Critique, 2d ed. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar
Kalman, Laura (1996) The Strange Career of Legal Liberalism. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Kateb, George (1997) “Brown and the Harm of Legal Segregation,” in Sarat, A., ed., Race, Law and Culture: Reflection on Brown v. Board of Education. New York and Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Kelman, Mark (1987) A Guide to Critical Legal Studies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Kostiner, Idit (2003) Conflicted Legalities: A Cultural Analysis of Law and Activism. Doctoral dissertation. Berkeley: Univ. of California.Google Scholar
Lamont, Michèle, & Thévenot, Laurent (2000) Rethinking Comparative Cultural Sociology: Repertoires of Evaluation in France and the United States. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, Kay, & Mellema, Virginia (2001) “Strategizing the Street: How Law Matters in the Lives of Women in the Street-Level Drug Economy,” 26 Law & Social Inquiry 169–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luker, Kristin (1984) Abortion and the Politics of Motherhood. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Lynd, Staughton (1984) “Communal Rights,” 62 Texas Law Rev. 1417–41.Google Scholar
Malinowski, Bronislaw (1926) Crime and Custom in Savage Society. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Matsuda, Mari J. (1987) “Looking to the Bottom: Critical Legal Studies and Reparations,” 22 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Rev. 323–99.Google Scholar
McAdam, Doug (1982) Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McAdam, Doug (1989) “The Biographical Consequences of Activism,” 54 American Sociological Rev. 744–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCann, Michael W. (1986) Taking Reform Seriously: Perspectives on Public Interest Liberalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael W. (1989) “Equal Protection for Social Inequality: Race and Class in American Constitutional Ideology,” in Judging the Constitution: Critical Essays on Judicial Lawmaking, McCann, M. W. & Houseman, G. L., eds., Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman/Little, Brown.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael W. (1992) “Reform Litigation on Trial,” 17 Law & Social Inquiry 715–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCann, Michael W. (1994) Rights at Work: Pay Equity Reform and the Politics of Legal Mobilization. Chicago and London: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael W. (1998) “How Does Law Matter for Social Movements,” in Garth, B. & Sarat, A., eds., How Does Law Matter? Evanston, IL: Northwestern Univ. Press.Google Scholar
McCann, Michael W., & Silverstein, Helena (1997) “Rethinking Law's ‘Allurements’: A Relational Analysis of Social Movement Lawyers in the United States,” in Sarat, A. & Scheingold, S., eds., Cause Lawyering: Political Commitments and Professional Responsibilities. New York and Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Milner, Neal (1989) “The Denigration of Rights and the Persistence of Rights Talk: A Cultural Portrait,” 14 Law & Social Inquiry 631–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minow, Martha (1987) “Interpreting Rights: An Essay for Robert Cover,” 96 Yale Law J. 1860–915.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, Laura Beth (2000) “Situating Legal Consciousness: Experiences and Attitudes of Ordinary Citizens about Law and Street Harassment,” 34 Law & Society Rev. 1055–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paris, Michael (2001) “Legal Mobilization and the Politics of Reform: Lessons from School Finance Litigation in Kentucky 1984–1995,” 26 Law & Social Inquiry 631–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perry, Michael J. (1984) “Taking Neither Rights-Talk nor the ‘Critique of Rights’ Too Seriously,” 62 Texas Law Rev. 1405–16.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Gerald N. (1991) The Hollow Hope: Can Courts Bring About Social Change? Chicago and London: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Gerald N. (1992) “Hollow Hopes and Other Aspirations: A Reply to Feeley and McCann,” 17 Law & Social Inquiry 761–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarat, Austin (1997) “The Continuing Contest about Race in American Law and Culture: On Reading the Meaning of Brown,” in Sarat, A., ed., Race, Law and Culture: Reflection on Brown v. Board of Education. New York and Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Savigny, Fridrich Karl von (1975 [1831]) Of the Vocation of Our Age for Legislation and Jurisprudence, Translated by A. Hayward. New York: Arno Press.Google Scholar
Scheingold, Stuart A. (1974) The Politics of Rights: Lawyers, Public Policy, and Political Change. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Sewell, William H. Jr. (1992) “A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformation,” 98 American J. of Sociology 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silbey, Susan S. (2001) “Legal Culture and Legal Consciousness,” in Smelser, N. J. & Baltes, P. B., eds., International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Amsterdam and New York: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Silverstein, Helena (1996) Unleashing Rights: Law, Meaning, and the Animal Rights Movement. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sumner, William (1940) “Folkways and Mores,” Excerpt from Treviño, A. J. (1996) The Sociology of Law: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Swami, Sivananda (1997) Bliss Devine (fifth edition) Himalayas, India: The Yoga-Vedanta Forest Academy Press.Google Scholar
Swidler, Ann (1986) “Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies,” 51 American Sociological Rev. 273–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swidler, Ann (2001) Talk of Love: How Culture Matters. Chicago and London: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tigar, Michael E. (1984) “The Right of Property and the Law of Theft,” 62 Texas Law Rev. 1443–75.Google Scholar
Tushnet, Mark (1984) “An Essay on Rights,” 62 Texas Law Rev. 1363–403.Google Scholar
Wagner, Peter (1999) “After Justification: Repertoires of Evaluation and the Sociology of Modernity,” 2 European J. of Social Theory 341–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Patricia J. (1987) “Alchemical Notes: Reconstructing Ideals from Deconstructed Rights,” 22 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Rev. 401–33.Google Scholar
Williams, Patricia J. (1991) The Alchemy of Race and Rights: Diary of a Law Professor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar

Case Cited

Brown v. Board of Education 347 U.S. 483 (1954).Google Scholar