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Strand on a Civic Concept of Law

By Lawrence Solum

Palma Strand (Creighton University School of Law) has posted A Civic Critique of Democracy: Civic Organizing as the Generating Force of a Civic Concept of Law on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This article focuses on how citizen actions and interactions - in particular, civic relationships, civic engagement, civic networks, civic webs, and civic organizing - create the kind of society we think of when we use the word ?democracy.? Using two current examples of constitutional law, I then illustrate how civic organizing provides a role for citizens in law and how its absence can stunt legal progress. With gay rights and same-sex marriage, enormous shifts have occurred in recent decades through the civic organizing known as ?coming out.? With abortion, in contrast, the law is stuck because privacy and secrecy taboos inhibit story-telling by pro-choice citizens and because a posture of certainty inhibits story-listening by pro-life citizens.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on December 15, 2009 (boomark / email).