Jurisprudence of style : a structuralist history of American pragmatism and liberal legal thought
[electronic resource] / by Justin Desautels-Stein.
- Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2018.
- 1 online resource (306p.)
- (Cambridge historical studies in American law and society). .
Table of contents: Part I. Legal structuralism Chapter 1. The rise and fall of the Harvard School Chapter 2. Towards a jurisprudence of style Chapter 3. The context of legal thought : structure and style in time Part II. Liberal legal thought Chapter 4. The classical style Chapter 5. The modern style Chapter 6. Liberal legalism and the context of legal thought Part III. Pragmatic liberalism Chapter 7. American pragmatism Chapter 8. Liberal legalism is dead, long live liberal legalism Chapter 9. Trompe l'oeil liberalism.
Includes Index.
"In the contemporary domain of American legal thought there is a dominant way in which lawyers and judges craft their argumentative practice. More colloquially, this is a dominant conception of what it means to 'think like a lawyer'. Despite the widespread popularity of this conception, it is rarely described in detail or given a name. Justin Desautels-Stein tells the story of how and why this happened, and why it matters. Drawing upon and updating the work of Harvard Law School's first generation of critical legal studies, Desautels-Stein develops what he calls a jurisprudence of style. In doing so, he uncovers the intellectual alliance, first emerging at the end of the nineteenth century and maturing in the last third of the twentieth century, between American pragmatism and liberal legal thought. Applying the tools of legal structuralism and phenomenology to real-world cases in areas of contemporary legal debate, this book develops a practice-oriented understanding of legal thought."