p. 34113. Critical legal theory
- Raymond WacksRaymond WacksEmeritus Professor of Law and Legal Theory, University of Hong Kong
Abstract
All critical legal theorists share a deep cynicism about many of the important questions of legal theory. Fundamentally they reject many of the assumptions of both the legal and political order: for example, the free market, ‘meta-narratives’, and male or racial domination. This chapter first discusses the development of critical legal studies and then turns to postmodern legal theory, considering the views of Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, and Jürgen Habermas. It then goes on to outlines the principal claims of critical race theory (CRT). It also considers the relationships between CRT and feminist theory and CRT and postmodernism.
