Legal K Lecture - 2015

1. Legal K Lecture - 2015 • HSIMPACT.COM

2. Power?

3. Power: the ability to make others do what you want

4. Authority?

5. Authority: the source of the power

6. Legitimacy?

7. Legitimacy: whether or not that authority is generally accepted.

8. Theories of Legitimacy - What makes a government legitimate?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG1BUXW1-E4

9. Theories of Legitimacy • Might makes right

10. Theories of Legitimacy: • Might makes right • Divine right

11. Theories of Legitimacy • Might makes right • Divine right • Inheritance

12. Theories of Legitimacy • Might makes right • Divine right • Inheritance • Social Contract

13. Hobbes’ Theory of Social Contract • “Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short • To preserve themselves, people enter into a bargain, or contract, with the government. • They give up all rights, and government promises to protect them.

14. Locke’s Theory of Social Contract • Everyone has a natural right to life, liberty and property • These rights cannot be given up • Citizens enter into a social contract with government. As long as government is protecting life, liberty and property, it is legitimate and must be obeyed. If not . . .

15. We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are endowed by their Creator with Certain unalienable Rights . . .

16. That among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness - That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men . . .

17. . . . Deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed. . .

18. What is the Law? • the system of rules that a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and may enforce by the imposition of penalties.

19. What is the Legal System • The full interconnected system of judicial, regulatory and governmental authorities who together administer and enforce the laws of the United States, operate the judicial system, and resolve judicial disputes and appeals. It consists of various official bodies at the federal, state and local levels.

20. What is Lawfare? use of domestic or international law with the intention of damaging an opponent, winning a public relations victory, financially crippling an opponent, or tying up the opponent's time so that they cannot pursue other ventures • the use of law to effectuate subordination, conquest or control of subaltern or, generally, less powerful groups. The use of legal discourse often accompanies various forms of imperial, nationalist or even social hegemony. • Negative state action still justifies the system • Law can be used as violence through neglect or active targeting • Law necessitates disciplinary mechanisms • J. L. Comaroff (2001). "Colonialism, Culture, and the Law: A Foreword,". Law & Society Inquiry26: 306.

21. What is Legalism? • excessive adherence to law or formula. • http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/seeking-a-friend-for-the-end-of-the-world/set-aside-the-law

22. Governmentality • Foucault’s Term Power-Knowledge - to indicate the involvement of knowledge in the maintenance of power relations • the way in which the state exercises control over, or governs, the body of its populace. • the way governments try to produce the citizen best suited to fulfill those governments' policies • the organized practices (mentalities, rationalities, and techniques) through which subjects are governed

23. CLS • Critical legal studies (CLS) is a theory that challenges and overturns accepted norms and standards in legal theory and practice. Proponents of this theory believe that logic and structure attributed to the law grow out of the power relationships of the society.

24. CLS • statutes and case law) do not completely determine the outcome of legal disputes • there is the idea that all "law is politics". There is no 'pure' law or politics • law tends to serve the interests of the wealthy and the powerful by protecting them against the demands of the poor and the subaltern • legal materials are inherently contradictory ( the opposition between individualism and altruism) • Questions the Kantian notion of the autonomous individual

25. Normativity • Critique of ‘normative legal though’ • when legal scholars, advocates and activists take a position on what the law ought to be, how it should be interpreted, etc.  • Ignorance • Self Satisfaction • Preservation • Predicated on Source of Power • It’s force rather than S.C. Legal Consitancy What should we do? Interp

26. Critical Race Theory • application of critical theory, a critical examination of society and culture, to the intersection of race, law, and power. • K of Liberalism – Colorblindness, Revolt • Storytelling – Application to Legal System • K of Civil Rights – Derek Bell • White Privilege • Intersectionality

27. Feminist Jurisprudence- Feminist Legal Theory • philosophy of law based on the political, economic, and social equality of the genders • Liberal feminism – Rights based Approach • Sexual difference – Law must take into account various difference • Dominance model – Legal system mechanism for male dominance. sexuality is socially constructed by male dominance • Anti-Essentialist -- explore the ways in which race, class, sexual orientation, and other axes of subordination interplay with gender

28. Questions?