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Varieties of New Legal Realism: Can a New World Order Prompt a New Legal Theory?

By Alliance Alert

Cornell Law Review: "Given current events, this article identifies and critiques an emerging body of legal theory that has dubbed itself 'new legal realism.' Over 275 papers have already used this moniker. This article surveys and analyzes this scholarship, arguing that 'new legal realism' is responding to a shared concept of a 'new formalism' - neoclassical law and economics. New legal realists are not anti-economics (some of them are economists themselves), but they are challenging the new formalism's assumptions about the state, the individual, and legal theory. The paper critiques various forms of new legal realist scholarship, from behavioral economics to legal empiricism, and offers suggestions about future directions for a legal theory more capable of addressing our vulnerable national orders in light of the history of the original realism."

Full post as published by Constitutionally Correct on May 19, 2009 (boomark / email).