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Law as a Means to an End
By
Brian Z. Tamanaha
Description
The contemporary U.S. legal culture is
marked by ubiquitous battles among various groups attempting to seize
control of the law and wield it against others in pursuit of their
particular agenda. This battle takes place in administrative,
legislative, and judicial arenas at both the state and federal
levels. This book identifies the underlying source of these battles
in the spread of the instrumental view of law - the idea that law is
purely a means to an end - in a context of sharp disagreement over
the social good. It traces the rise of the instrumental view of law
in the course of the past two centuries, then demonstrates the
pervasiveness of this view of law and its implications within the
contemporary legal culture, and ends by showing the various ways in
which seeing law in purely instrumental terms threatens to corrode
the rule of law.
• Provides a unique historical and
contemporary account of the spread and entrenchment of the idea that
law is a means to an end • Draws upon legal history, legal
theory, and legal sociology • Provides an overview of the U.S.
legal culture - past, present, and future
Contents
Introduction; Part I. The Spread of
Legal Instrumentalism: 1. Non-instrumental views of law; 2. Changing
society and common law in the nineteenth century; 3. Nineteenth
century legislation and legal profession; 4. Instrumentalism of the
legal realists; 5. Twentieth century Supreme Court instrumentalism;
Part II. Contemporary Legal Instrumentalism: 6. Instrumentalism in
legal academia in the 1970s; 7. Instrumentalism in theories of law;
8. Instrumentalism in the legal profession; 9. Instrumentalism of
cause litigation; 10. Instrumentalism and the judiciary; 11.
Instrumentalism in legislation and administration; Part III.
Corroding the Rule of Law: 12. Collapse of higher law, deterioration
of common good; 13. The threat to legality; Epilogue.
Reviews
\\\' … an excellent treatment of a
substantively interesting phenomenon, with real world implications.
it is written in a lively, lucid manner, filled with fascinating
titbits of information about its subject matter … an
outstanding treatment of an important scholarly question with
profound normative implications for American society.\\\' Law and
Politics Review
\\\' … at once a high-paced
historical thriller and a clamorous critique of contemporary US legal
culture … Tamanaha is an energetic travel companion. We should
be grateful for his political sensitivity and his willingness to
trawl through what he sees as a kind of Dante\\\'s Hell.\\\' The Cambridge
Law Journal
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